BOISE — Gov. Brad Little this week signed into law a bill creating an optional diversion program for first-time drunk driving offenders.

The program will allow offenders to drive on a restricted permit if they install, at their own cost, an ignition interlock system on their vehicle. Those who successfully complete the program will have their charge dismissed.

Prosecutors can choose to not allow a drunk driver to participate in the program, and any driver who caused a fatal or injury crash can’t participate.

Those in the program must use an interlock system, which requires a driver to blow into a mouthpiece before being able to start their vehicle; the mechanism will only unlock the ignition if the driver is deemed sober.

Rep. Ryan Kerby, R-New Plymouth, and Sen. Abby Lee, R-Fruitland, sponsored the bill, HB 78, working with Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Idaho Sheriffs Association.

“First-time offenders who enter into the diversion program can still work, pick up their children, care for their families — as long as they first provide a sober breath sample,” said MADD National President Helen Witty, who lost her 16-year-old daughter, Helen Marie, to an alcohol- and marijuana-impaired driver. “H 78 is, at its core, a smart-on-crime, rehabilitative approach to drunk driving.”

As of January, first-time convicted DUI offenders to install the device in their vehicle, at their expense, for a year, after their license suspension period, according to a previous Idaho Press report. Previously, only people who got a DUI on more than one occasion were required to use the device.

Mandatory interlock laws reduce DUI recidivism by about 70 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.