MADD: Car-Locking Systems Have Stopped 1.77 Million Drivers

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) -- A new study released Wednesday shows in-car breathalyzers work. Experts say nationwide, thousands of DUI accidents are prevented every year because of the device. Now some Maryland lawmakers are backing a new bill that would bring more to the state.

Gigi Barnett has more on how how many drunk drivers were stopped from driving in Maryland by ignition interlocks.

The law is called Noah's Law, named after slain Montgomery County police officer Noah Leotta. He died just two months ago, while trying to stop other DUI drivers.

"I'm damned angry. There's no reason why my son has to be dead," said Rich Leotta.

The pain is fresh for Leotta. He says he'll never forget the scene where his son, Montgomery County police officer Noah Leotta, died back in December. He was on a task force set up to stop holiday drunk driving when out of nowhere, a drunk driver struck and killed him.

"My family is in hell. We didn't ask to be there. Somebody put us there," Leotta said.

He appeared in Annapolis backing a proposed bill that now bears his son's name. "Noah's Law" would put in-car breathalyzers into vehicles of all drunk drivers arrested with a blood alcohol level of .08. Right now in Maryland, only drunk drivers with levels nearly twice as high have the devices.

How do they work?

The driver blows into the device. If they're sober, the car starts.

"The ignition interlock device allows you to use your car to drive to work, to take your kids to school, to take a pleasure trip on the weekend---but it does not allow you to do it drunk," said Senator Jamie Raskin, the bill's author.

Now, Mothers Against Drunk Driving is supporting the law, too. The group just released a first-of-its-kind report tracking the effectiveness of in-car breathalyzers. MADD discovered that the device has blocked nearly two million would-be drunk drivers nationwide since states first started using them.

"It's a life and death issue," said Leotta.

Efforts to pass a bill like Noah's Law have failed repeatedly in Annapolis.