Lose your license for drunk driving in Maryland and a new law says you won't get it back unless you let technology monitor what you're doing behind the wheel. Tonight's "Tech Live" reports on the ignition interlocks that are keeping Maryland drunks off the road.

A Maryland teacher who identifies herself only as "Angie" is on the receiving end of a lesson this month. Caught with a blood alcohol level over the legal limit for operating a car, Angie is keeping her driver's license only because she has agreed to let state-approved technicians install an ignition interlock in her car.

The device prevents Angie from starting the car until she blows into a monitoring device that measures the alcohol level in her breath.

"If the unit detects any type of alcohol substance, the ignition will not turn over and thus your car will not start," said Michele Denhoff, a district coordinator for Draeger. The Draeger Interlock is the device approved for use in the Maryland program.

Angie is just learning how to use the monitor. Drivers are taught a particular method for blowing into the machine so that the deep lung contents pass over the fuel cell that monitors exhalation. The fuel cell then records the level of blood alcohol. She says the deal with the state lets her have a car so she can drive to work and live her life.

Cracking down

On September 30 the law gets tougher. It mandates a one-year license suspension for anyone convicted of drunk driving twice in five years. When the year is up, the convict won't be able to legally drive unless the car has an ignition interlock.

The device doesn't leave the driver alone once the car has started. At predetermined intervals it beeps, notifying the driver to once again blow into the machine as the car travels down a road. Failure to do so will be recorded and the state will be notified.

The interlock also has a memory, which licensed vendors download and send to the state at least once a month. It records the results of each start and much more.

"It will tell you how many times [a driver] started the vehicle in 30 days. It will tell you how many miles [the driver] has driven in 30 days. The monitoring agencies tag certain information," Denhoff said.

Lesser of two evils?

Concerns that Big Brother may be gathering too much information don't concern activists who want drunk driving better controlled.

"These are people that we have already caught for drunk driving. They've already violated the law. And not only that. They've done it more than once. These are repeat offenders," said John Moulden of the National Commission Against Drunk Driving. "Your viewers may not realize how hard it is to get caught for drunk driving. It's estimated that only one in 200 to one in 2,000 drunk-driving trips are actually detected. To get caught once is a rare event. To get caught twice in a certain period of time is exceedingly rare. So that tells you how often they have been out there endangering the public."

Although the new law will dramatically increase ignition interlocks, Maryland judges have been imposing them in appropriate cases for years. Drunk drivers say they have an impact.

Proactive method

"They tell us, 'It makes me think every day before I start my car.' And we at [the Motor Vehicle Administration] believe that it is this forced thinking that is saving the lives of so many people," said Cheron-Victoria Wicker of the state motor vehicle agency.

"It is a very effective way for us to take proactive measures in identifying clients who have this problem and giving them a solution that will increase the safety of all of us," she said.

It's not cheap. Drunk drivers pay as much as $65 a month for the privilege of letting the government control their cars and monitor their movements.

But some Draeger customers want the device for reasons not imposed by the state.

"We have private clients who just would like to monitor themselves to get themselves out of the habit, whatever that might be. We have parents who would [use the interlock with] their students that are leaving for school and they're using a family vehicle. They would have one installed in their vehicle to make sure the child was not drinking and driving when they are away at school. We have children that put parents on as they become elderly to monitor what their parents are doing during the day. They may have had previous problems," Denhoff said. "Those are a few of the private clients that we have."

This year Maryland monitors 5,200 drivers with ignition interlocks. When the new law kicks in, that number is expected to go up dramatically.