Families of crash victims and leaders from Mothers Against Drunk Driving crowded into the North Carolina Legislative Building on Wednesday, urging lawmakers to shut what they call dangerous DWI loopholes by tightening ignition-interlock rules. Survivors tied the push to a run of deadly crashes, including a wrong-way collision in March that killed Master Trooper Steven Perry. Their focus is House Bill 1199, a measure that would expand when judges order ignition interlocks and clamp down on who can drive after a license is revoked.
At the news conference, Rocky Mount mother Stephanie Ronan recalled being trapped and permanently injured after a 2018 head-on crash in Wilson County. “September 29, 2018, changed my life forever,” Ronan said, describing the fallout from the wreck. Jeanette Best, a Wake County mother, said her son was close friends with Master Trooper Steven Perry and that the loss “instantly scared me,” as reported by The News & Observer.
What HB 1199 Would Do
House Bill 1199, filed in the 2025–2026 session and sponsored by Reps. Mike Schietzelt and Tim Reeder, would tighten the rules in several key ways. It would require ignition interlocks for drivers convicted of DWI with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher and for drivers who refuse chemical testing. The proposal also calls for interlocks on every vehicle an offender operates and would limit post-revocation driving privileges to vehicles equipped with those devices, according to the North Carolina General Assembly’s bill page. Lawmakers sent the measure to the House Judiciary Committee in early May, where it now waits while legislators sort through their options.
Numbers Behind the Push
As reported by ABC11, MADD shared state figures showing 449 people were killed in drunk-driving crashes in North Carolina in 2024, a 16% jump since 2019. Nearly 30% of all traffic deaths in the state now involve an impaired driver, according to that data. A separate tally from the North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program FY2024 annual report puts alcohol-impaired fatalities at an estimated 318 for 2024, based on NCDOT and FARS data, highlighting how different counting methods can produce different totals. Manufacturer data compiled for MADD also indicates that ignition interlocks stopped nearly 41,000 attempted drunk-driving starts in North Carolina over the past 18 years, including more than 3,300 in 2024, the ABC11 report said.
Do Ignition Interlocks Work?
Research has been largely consistent on one point: ignition interlocks significantly cut repeat alcohol-impaired driving while they are installed. CDC guidance and multiple systematic reviews find that reoffending drops by roughly two-thirds for drivers using the devices. National reviews and the National Academies also note that the benefit often fades once interlocks come off the car, which is why experts recommend pairing the technology with policies that boost installation rates and link devices to license reinstatement. That gap between how well the devices work and how often they are actually used, with many eligible offenders avoiding installation unless required, is the problem HB 1199 is designed to tackle…