MADD on the right track in fighting drunk driving accidents

Posted by Bruce Westbrook

June 11, 2009

Beyond groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving — and individual victims of drunk drivers — America goes about its business each day with precious little regard for the national nightmare of drunk driving and the horrific toll it relentlessly carves from our society.

Every day new tragedies erupt and new statistics add up. Yet not enough is being done about it, which is one reason why MADD just severed its ties with the “Century Council,” an activist group — funded by the liquor industry itself — with which MADD had collaborated.

It turns out the Century Council’s activism is limited. That group wants crackdowns against drunk drivers to be confined to hard-core drunks whose blood alcohol content is .15 or higher. Yet the legal limit for drunk driving is .08.

In short, the Century Council wants to go easier on those who are just a little drunk, if there can be such a thing. And MADD wasn’t happy with that.

Nor should we be. Drunk driving kills and maims many thousands of innocent people and costs America many billions of dollars each and every year. Just this morning in Houston, alcohol abuse was believed to be a factor when one speeding car slammed into another, killing one of the speeding car’s passengers. And elsewhere around the nation, about three dozen people a day, on average, die due to drunk drivers.

One counter move being explored is to require convicted drunk drivers to have an ignition interlock in their cars which prevents them from driving when their breath betrays too much alcohol in their system. With MADD’s backing, it’s also possible that future cars may have built-in breath-testing devices for all drivers, not just habitual drunks.

Such alcohol testers would prevent operation of a car if the driver’s alcohol level is too high. But they also could alert anyone of their exact BAC level, so that person could make a discretionary decision not to drive even if their BAC is lower than the cut-off point.

While we wait for such safeguards in cars, you can fight back if you or a loved one was harmed by a drunk driver. Contact a zero-tolerance drunk driving lawyer or personal injury attorney with Jim S. Adler & Associates, and let him or her battle for you in the legal realm to claim the financial compensation to which you are legally entitled.

How to begin? Simply submit the free case evaluation form on this website. Then, don’t just get mad — get justice.

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