On Sept. 2, 1992, a truck driver who had six prior drunken driving arrests killed my 15-year-old son.

Brian was driving his moped just four blocks from our home in Kaneohe. The 69-year-old driver, whose six arrests had led to two DUI convictions, hit Brian. When that man shattered my son’s body, he also shattered my family’s dreams.

While the memory of my son warms every day of my life, the reality that I couldn’t save him chills me to the bone. It’s a fear every parent knows: What if everything I’ve done to protect my child isn’t enough? On that day in 1992, it wasn’t.

My son’s death drove me to become deeply involved with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). But I’ve reached this very distressing conclusion: Decades of educating and testifying about the dangers of drunken driving haven’t been enough for other children or their families.

Drunken driving deaths have been reduced 52% since MADD’s founding 40 years ago. We, along with other advocates and law enforcement heroes, have employed safety experts’ three E’s — education, engineering and enforcement — to save as many lives as we can. But more than 10,000 people still die annually in the U.S. as a result of drunken driving.

I now believe that only technology can prevent more drunken driving deaths. Thankfully, it already exists. The auto industry developed driver monitoring systems, which can detect signs of distracted, impaired or fatigued driving, and alcohol detection systems, which use sensors to determine whether a driver is under the influence and then prevent the vehicle from moving. More than 9,400 lives could be saved annually by installing such systems in all new cars, according to an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study.

It’s time to get these lifesaving systems out of the labs and into every vehicle on the road, to ensure that there will be no more victims of drunken driving.

To do that, we need Congress to act. In 2019, legislation was introduced in the House and Senate that would require the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to conduct a rulemaking that results in a requirement for drunken driving prevention systems in all new vehicles in the near future.

The House passed its version in 2020. A similar measure in the Senate with bipartisan support was pending before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee when the 116th Congress ended.

Strong leadership from U.S. Sens. Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz is needed to help get this legislation reintroduced and passed. Sen. Schatz in particular has a track record of supporting bipartisan efforts to improve road safety nationwide and use transportation options to help create safer neighborhoods for families.

Now, as Hawaii’s senior U.S. senator, he serves on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. And he was recently named chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee, which funds the U.S. Department of Transportation and NHTSA and can direct its programs.

Sens. Hirono and Schatz, I’m counting on you. That day in 1992 feels like yesterday. But I’m focused on the future. My son would be proud to know his mom sees the promise of lifesaving technology. It’s a promise I hope Congress recognizes, too, so it can tell the auto industry to finally use technology to prevent drunken driving.

Theresa Paulette is a former MADD Hawaii president and member of MADD’s National Board.