Drunken drivers in South Dakota are now subject to a two-breathalyzer minimum.

Lawmakers in that state, where a quarter of fatal traffic accidents in 2005 stemmed from drunken driving, have made its pilot 24/7 Sobriety program – which orders OUI offenders to report to their local sheriff twice daily for alcohol breath tests – into permanent law.

The theory, South Dakota officials told The Associated Press, isn’t to stop repeat offenders from driving drunk, but to stop them from drinking at all. “If they quit drinking, I don’t care if they drive,” said Attorney General Larry Long. So far, 1,000 drivers enrolled in the program have passed 99 percent of their breath tests.

It’s an idea with merit for Maine. A similiar program could have prevented the deadly holiday crash that claimed the lives of six people in Poland. The driver who reportedly caused the accident, 20-year-old Michael Cournoyer of Auburn, was revealed this week to have had a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit.

Three of his friends, and two others, died with him in the horrific crash, one of Maine’s worst. Cournoyer was driving on a suspended license, following an earlier conviction for drunken driving. He would have been the perfect participant for a program such as South Dakota’s, if one were in existence here.

Perhaps it should be, as should many other stringent anti-drunken-driving laws. Maine, for example, is one of only five states – Alabama, Hawaii, Vermont and, surprisingly, South Dakota – to lack laws regarding the installation of ignition interlocks for chronic OUI offenders.

An interlock is a device to test blood alcohol content – BAC – of a driver before starting a vehicle. In some states it’s mandatory, in others, recommended. Either way, it’s time for Maine to consider joining 45 other states in putting ignition interlock language into its lawbooks.

Because, quite simply, more could, and needs, to be done. For the family of Cournoyer, to know that their son, his friends and two strangers didn’t die in vain. For the family of Lisa Cerqueira, who was killed tragically last week by an allegedly drunken driver, Sarah Forbes, while trying to free her snowmobile from a roadside snowdrift.

Cerqueira was 20 and engaged to a police officer, who was also injured in the crash. More should be done to show her family, her fiance’s family and our law enforcement community that Maine is serious about preventing drunken driving.

The highest-profile state traffic laws of recent vintage have attacked suspended drivers. Meanwhile, other states – such as South Dakota – have moved to develop aggressive measures to curb drunken driving.

It’s time for Maine to do the same.