The numbers are still continuing to rise and there seems to be no end when all the accidents and collisions would be stopping because of people who drink and then later on drive. The only people who seem to have a grand time out of these are doctors, dealers of Saab auto parts and other auto products, and mechanics. But everybody else around suffers.

However, there seems to be a light at the end of the seemingly endless and dark tunnel. And drunk drivers should better be aware of this. Thanks to Saab, there is now a kind of device which actually could detect drunk drivers. This device is known as the AlcoKey and it has just recently won one of the most coveted awards in the Europe auto industry.

The Saab AlcoKey is much smaller than your mobile phone and it also a slim device at that. What the AlcoKey does is that it actually detects if the person behind the wheel can drive or cannot drive. How? Well, the AlcoKey is actually installed in your vehicle. It has a flip-top cover where, underneath, is a mouth piece. The person behind the wheel has to first give a sample of his breath before he can actually start his car up. The breath sample would be sent then to the vehicle’s electronic control unit which would then determine if the person is drunk or not. If the person is drunk, then the ECU would not allow the vehicle to start. At least, this AlcoKey keeps people safe.

“One of the most efficient measures to reduce the number of traffic accidents is the incorporation of alco-lock devices as standard in newly-produced cars. To achieve reasonable cost levels, create optimum user friendliness and provide technical quality, the car industry must push forward the development process of this safety installation. Saab’s development of – and ongoing field trials with – Saab AlcoKey, will have strategic importance for safer traffic conditions and will, at the same time, contribute to a beneficial development of competition in the car market as a whole,” says the spokesperson for the Swedish Automobile Association. It was this group which awarded Saab for such an innovative device.