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Owing to pressure from Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and other groups, laws and attitudes on intoxicated drivers have changed rapidly. The good news is that deaths of drunk drivers are down 32% since 1980, and deaths from cirrhosis of the liver, whose principal cause is heavy consumption of alcohol, declined steadily over the same period. The bad news is that vast ! numbers of Americans are still willing to drive drunk. Ralph Milstead, director of Arizona's department of public safety, estimates that one of every 100 drivers on the road on Saturday and Sunday nights is "absolutely blitzed...
...MADD was founded in 1980 by Candy Lightner, 38, after one of her three children was struck and killed by a drunk driver while walking in a bicycle lane. A year later she said, "We've kicked a few pebbles, we'll turn a few stones, and eventually we'll start an avalanche." In these postavalanche days, MADD is getting just about all the laws it wants. A total of 37 states have "dram shop" laws or legal precedents holding servers of alcohol responsible for the acts of drunks. Happy hours, banned or restricted in 15 states so far, seem...
...MADD and other groups are promoting nonalcoholic postprom parties for high schoolers. To prevent youngsters from slipping away for a furtive belt, the usual rule is that people who leave the party are not allowed back in. Many of the parties are planned around a feverish array of activities, all designed to keep the mind off booze. At Cherry Creek High School outside Denver, the postprom bash this year featured volleyball in the gym, water games in the pool, disco dancing, a magic show, ten video games and a makeshift casino. Free hot dogs, nachos and soft drinks were served...
Once launched, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) proved a virtually irresistible force. Now headquartered near Dallas, where Lightner moved, MADD has 320 chapters nationwide and 600,000 volunteers and donors. In response to Lightner's efforts, California passed a tough new law in 1981 that imposes minimum fines of $375 and mandatory imprisonment of up to four years for repeat offenders. By now all 50 states have tightened their drunk-driving laws. And Lightner keeps making speeches, lobbying legislators and generally creating waves. Last July she stood beside President Ronald Reagan as he signed a new law reducing federal highway...
...account for less than 20% of total vehicle miles driven. Teen-agers from 16 to 19 make up just 7% of licensed drivers but are involved in nearly 15% of the fatal crashes in which alcohol is a factor. Says Candy Lightner, president of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD),* of the pro-21 proposals: "There is nothing more important today than reducing the No. 1 killer and crippler of young Americans...