Word: madd
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Before Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)--a nationwide organization of relatives of drunk driving accident victims--began protesting the legal loopholes that permit drunk driving, the maximum sentence for vehicular homicide was an unconscionable two and a half years...
...commission will hardly be breaking new ground. Outraged families of victims, organized in groups like Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD), have doggedly lobbied to produce tough new statutes in half the states over the past year. Under a bill passed by Florida's legislature, a first conviction would bring a minimum fine of $250, plus 50 hours of required community service and a six-month loss of license. For a second offense, the minimum penalties would jump to $500 and ten days in jail. To step up the rate of conviction, many states have made a blood-alcohol level...
...leaders of the movement is Candy Lightner, 35, of Fair Oaks, Calif. Fifteen months ago, shortly after one of her three children was killed by a drunk driver while walking in a bicycle lane, Lightner quit her job as a real estate agent to found Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD). The organization now has 25 chapters in five states. Says she: "We've kicked a few pebbles, we'll turn a few stones, and eventually we'll start an avalanche...
Lobbying by MADD and similar organizations has already led several states to enact tougher laws, most of them dealing with sentencing. New York's legislature passed a bill providing a minimum $350 fine for a first drunk-driving offense ($250 even for those who bargain down to the lesser charge of "driving while ability is Impaired"). A major force behind the measure was Remove Intoxicated Drivers (RID), a group formed in 1978 by Doris Aiken, 52, with a $50 contribution from her church. Says she: "Last year each drunk driver in New York paid, on the average...