This editorial appeared in the Tacoma News Tribune on Friday:

Trying to reason with a drunk has its limits, and the nation’s fight against drunk driving has reached them.

Forty percent of traffic fatalities in this country still involve a drunk driver, despite more than two decades of work to raise public awareness about impaired driving and to create tougher penalties for offenders.

After a marked drop in the 1980s and early 1990s, the number of alcohol-related vehicle fatalities has remained relatively constant for the last 10 years.

The country has wrung all the progress it can from appealing to drinkers’ better selves or at least their urge for self-preservation. Persuasion isn’t enough. What makes booze such a proficient killer is its power to hijack a person’s judgment.

It’s time for a new tack: Disarming would-be drunk drivers by disabling their weapons.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, backed by a national association of state highway officials and car manufacturers, has announced a campaign to pass laws requiring even first-time offenders to install alcohol detection devices in their vehicles. If the device detects alcohol, it shuts down the car.

Washington, which has stricter DUI laws than many states, has required alcohol detection devices, or ignition interlocks, for first-time offenders since 2004. But some lawmakers are concerned that the law is not uniformly enforced since records show a gap between the number of people who are required to have the device and the number of cars that actually have them installed.

Proof of sobriety is a small price to ask of someone who gets behind the wheel again after demonstrating such a serious lack of judgment. It will also keep some first-time offenders from becoming repeat offenders.

But going even that far won’t make the roads as safe as they could be. Many inebriated drivers are never caught; even the ones who are could easily get around their own devices by borrowing a car.

Some supporters of alcohol detection devices have the answer: Install the devices in every new car. They need not be intrusive or prohibitively expensive. Advances in technology might mean that one day a driver’s blood-alcohol level could be measured by skin sensors on the steering wheel. And much like air bags, mass production could bring the cost down significantly.

Ignition interlocks are the rarest of crime-fighting tools given their ability to stop a crime before it happens. Broader use of them would certainly save lives.