Push to reduce wrong way drivers

(WTNH) -- On MADD's to-do list for 2013 is push for legislation that requires first time offenders to basically have a breathalyzer attached to their car before they can start it.

A study released today is one more reason MADD feels more can be done.

Each picture on the wall is a story, each story painful, a life lost victimized by a drunk driver. These reminders are posted in MADD's conference room for a clear purpose.

"It's a ripple effect. It doesn't just effect the victims, it doesn't just effect the drunk driver's family, it effects the community," Janice Margolis said.

Margolis, the executive director of CT's MADD chapter, has spent years of her life working to reduce the number of pictures on this wall.

A study released today by the National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, reveals the leading cause of wrong-way highway driving accidents are caused by alcohol.

"It's one-hundred percent preventable," Margolis said.

Her solution to lower the death statistic of 360 drivers a year is to install ignition interlocks, like a breathalyzer, on all first-offenders' cars. Connecticut requires this device after a second conviction.

"We see a number of families that have been destroyed because there is a wrong way driver on the highway. The thing I can tell you that I know would help to stop this sort of tragedy is the use of ignition interlock devices on all convicted drunk drivers," Margolis said.

The timing of this study seems almost coincidental considering we are in the holiday season.

State Police, keenly aware of the horrors following a wrong-way driver, are stepping up enforcement.

"We open up our tool box, we use every tool that we have in there, but it's not a one-sided operation. We need the cooperation of the public," Lt. Paul Vance said.

The type of alliance that could possibly avoid adding a picture to Margolis' wall, the kind of awareness that eliminates the need for an obituary.

"We shouldn't be dealing with families who've lost their, in many cases, their only child," Margolis said.