MADD Reports 3 Years of Progress in Eliminate Drunk Driving

The MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving is celebrating its third anniversary today, so the organization thought of making public some key points in the progress of this initiative.

The Campaign is centered around four main elements: support for high visibility law enforcement, ignition interlock for all convicted drunk drivers, voluntary exploration of advanced technologies and, of course, public support.

The launch for the nationwide holiday crackdown of "Over the Limit, Under Arrest" is set for December 14. MADD says it is urging for sobriety checkpoints in all fifty states, and supports full funding for law enforcement budgets. Moreover, there are currently 12 states with statewide requirements for interlocks at .08 BAC and California with a major pilot program covering four counties.

Three technology companies are now under contract to develop proof of concept devices that will unobtrusively and effectively detect when the driver is over the illegal level of .08 BAC. Design prototypes are expected to be available by the summer of 2010.

MADD truly believes the elimination of drunk driving will only be achieved with the public support. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety survey found 90 percent of the public support interlocks for convicted drunk drivers, and 78 percent support interlocks in all vehicles.

"We are on track to achieve MADD's goal of eliminating drunk driving," said Laura Dean-Mooney, National President of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "The goal of the Campaign is to ensure there are no more victims of drunk driving. This is especially important given the anniversary of my husband Mike's death in two days. He would be proud to see these successes ensuring the future of our daughter's safety and that of other children."