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 Since MADD was founded in 1980, alcohol-related traffic fatalities have dropped by 40 percent. But the threat remains. Each year, drunk drivers with an illegal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher kill nearly 13,000 people and injure countless more. Across the country, more than 1,000 families every month have to face the tragic consequences of drunk driving.
Drunk driving is one of the deadliest crimes in the nation—but our efforts to prevent drunk driving fatalities have stalled. In response, MADD is raising the stakes with the Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving. The Campaign is a bold new initiative with an audacious goal—to wipe out drunk driving in the United States in the next 10 years. By intensifying efforts to mobilize our network of impassioned affiliates, volunteers and like-minded organizations, we’re taking the fight against drunk driving to a new and unprecedented level. And we need your help – take our online Pledge to Eliminate Drunk Driving.
Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving goes far beyond slogans and taglines with four comprehensive and coordinated strategies:
- Intensive high-visibility law enforcement, including twice-yearly crackdowns and frequent enforcement efforts, including sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols in all 50 states.
- Full implementation of current alcohol ignition interlock technologies, including efforts to require alcohol ignition interlock devices for all convicted drunk drivers. A key part of this effort will be working with judges, prosecutors and state driver’s license officials to stop the revolving door of repeat offenders.
- Exploration and development of advanced vehicle technologies that would prevent drunk driving. These technologies must be moderately priced, absolutely reliable, set at the illegal BAC limit and unobtrusive to the sober driver.
- Mobilization of grassroots support, led by MADD and its more than 400 affiliates, to make the elimination of drunk driving a reality. MADD is uniting drunk-driving victims, families, community leaders and policy makers in this vital fight.
Law Enforcement
The Campaign begins with a commitment to highly visible law enforcement crackdowns, in including checkpoints and saturation patrols. Even though 87 percent of Americans support sobriety checkpoints, 10 states still prohibit their use and others rarely use them. Through the Campaign, we’ll work to make checkpoints legal in all states and to increase checkpoint usage throughout the country.
Crackdowns During High-Risk Periods
As a part of the Campaign, we’ll support twice-yearly drunk driving crackdowns before Labor Day and the December holidays.
Sobriety Checkpoints
For sobriety checkpoints, law enforcement officers set up checkpoints and stop vehicles in a specific sequence (for example, every other car, every fifth car), as well as drivers who are obviously breaking traffic laws. Law-abiding people are sent on their way within minutes. Average stop time is about the length of a cycle at a stop light.
Research shows that the overwhelming majority of people arrested for drunk driving have driven drunk an average of 87 times before their first arrest. Sobriety checkpoints help stop drunk drivers who would likely remain under the radar—and the publicity from checkpoints reminds people who drink that drinking and driving don’t mix.
Research also shows that sobriety checkpoints can significantly lower the incidence of drunk driving. In 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that alcohol-related crashes and fatalities dropped by 20 percent when sobriety checkpoints were used and publicized.
In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed that sobriety checkpoints are legitimate and constitutional enforcement. Despite that ruling, there are 10 states that continue to prohibit their use: Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. MADD is committed to bringing checkpoints to every state in the country. If you’re from one of these states, click here to tell your legislators that you support sobriety checkpoints.
Ignition Interlocks
People with previous drunk driving convictions make up approximately one-third of the drunk driving problem in America. The main reason people continue to drive drunk today—despite 27 years of intense public education and law enforcement’s best efforts—is because they can.
Research shows that currently available breath alcohol ignition interlock devices are one of the most effective ways to keep convicted drunk drivers from continuing to drive drunk. Unfortunately, they’re significantly underused in almost every community. Interlocks are proven to be up to 90 percent effective while on the vehicle, but it’s estimated that only one convicted drunk driver in eight gets the device each year—and most of those are repeat offenders.
We want to expand the use of interlocks to include all convicted drunk drivers. Even first-time offenses are indicators that a person has a serious problem with alcohol and is likely to become a repeat offender. First-time offenders have driven drunk an average of 87 times before they’re finally arrested. Learn more first offender behavior.
Sixty-five percent of the public favors mandatory interlocks for first time offenders, and 85 percent of the public favor mandatory interlocks for repeat offenders. MADD is committed to turning that high level of public support into action.
How Interlocks Work
Ignition interlocks prevent people who have alcohol in their system from driving a car. An operator breathes into an interlock device to determine blood alcohol concentration. If there is measurable alcohol in the blood, the vehicle does not start.
Current Usage
Only one out of eight convicted drunk drivers each year currently gets the device. There are approximately 135,000 interlocks currently in service in the United States
Effectiveness
Research on ignition interlocks clearly shows their effectiveness. There are 12 high-quality studies on interlocks for repeat offenders, six high-quality studies on interlocks for first-time offenders and four meta-studies of multiple jurisdictions. All of these show decreases in repeat offenses while the interlock is on the vehicle. In Maryland, Alberta, California and elsewhere, offenders who were assigned interlocks had 50 percent to 90 percent fewer repeat offense than offenders who didn’t receive the device. Studies have shown ignition interlocks are an average of 64 percent effective in reducing repeat drunk driving offenses.[1]
Interlocks fail when the supporting judicial infrastructure is weak – usually when mandatory interlock laws aren’t enforced or offenders who are sentenced to receive interlocks don’t have them installed or receive little oversight. MADD’s model interlock law, which has mandatory administrative and judicial components, will help eliminate many of these problems. You can learn more about MADD’s model ignition interlock law here.
MADD’s Plans for Increased Use
By working with legislators, judges, prosecutors and state driver license officials, the Campaign aims to stop repeat drunk drivers with interlocks. We’ll focus on significantly increasing interlock use in the next five years by encouraging states to enact model laws that require alcohol ignition interlock devices for all convicted drunk drivers.
We’ll also push for laws that require offenders to earn their way off the interlock device by passing all breath tests for a substantial and specified period of time. Even in New Mexico, where all first-time offenders are required to have ignition interlocks installed, an offender can attempt to drive drunk the day before the end of the court-appointed period and still get the interlock off the next day. By requiring no breath-test fails for a specified amount of time, we believe the device can help alter the offender’s high-risk behavior.
Advanced Technology
Emerging technology is one of the most promising and potentially effective approaches to eliminating drunk driving in the U.S. Another key component of the Campaign involves the development of new technology through a non-regulatory, voluntary and data-driven effort that allows a vehicle to recognize if a driver is drunk, and to stop the driver from operating that vehicle. And the public is overwhelmingly supportive of this effort: by a 4 to 1 margin (58 percent to 16 percent), Americans support advances in smart vehicle technology to prevent drivers from driving drunk.
MADD, along with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the auto industry and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, formed a cooperative research initiative through the Blue Ribbon Panel on Advanced Alcohol Detection Technology.
The panel will explore a wide range of technologies and develop clear parameters for technology development. We believe at least four classes of technology warrant further investigation: advanced breath testing, both individual testing and testing for alcohol in the vehicle; using visible light to measure BAC through spectroscopy; using non-invasive touch-based systems to measure BAC transdermally; and eye-movement measurement technology, including involuntary eye movements related to BAC and eye closure that can indicate drowsiness.
The technologies eventually implemented must be unobtrusive to the sober driver, absolutely reliable, accurate and cost effective. MADD will be an active participant on this panel but will not endorse any resulting products.
We have no interest in which technology or which company’s technology is best, only in creating a world without drunk driving by the best possible means.
International Technology Symposium
In June 2006, MADD convened the International Technology Symposium: A Nation Without Drunk Driving to explore the role of technology in controlling and even eliminating drunk driving. Participants included more than 100 representatives from organizations involved in technology research and development, automobile manufacturing, insurance, law enforcement, the courts, communications, state legislators, MADD members and staff, and NHTSA officials.
At the Symposium, invited speakers discussed four main themes in seven plenary sessions:
- Alcohol ignition interlocks: how they are used currently; their benefits and drawbacks; how their use and effectiveness might be expanded; and some obstacles to their increased use.
- Emerging technologies for detecting alcohol in drivers: what methods are being investigated; their current level of development; how they might be used; and the research and development needed to develop effective and practical products from these promising ideas.
- Public and institutions: how the public and key institutions view both alcohol ignition interlocks and potential driver performance monitoring technologies; and what is needed to build broad public and institutional acceptance.
- Next steps for development and implementation of emerging technology.
Timeline
In the first five years, the focus will be on the widespread installation of existing and emerging technologies on the vehicles of convicted drunk drivers. During the second five years, MADD would like to see implementation of improved technology on large fleets thanks to cooperation from the auto industry.
Ten years from now and beyond, we could possibly see voluntary application to the general population with the support of insurance-premium incentives.
The Campaign’s bold goal is to eliminate drunk driving in the U.S. within 10 years. It’s a major endeavor that requires broad teamwork. To ensure the success of the Campaign, we’re mobilizing grassroots support like never before. Our goal is to build on and increase the public’s support for initiatives to end drunk driving now.
Together with our more than 400 affiliates, MADD is uniting drunk-driving victims, families, community leaders and policy makers. We’re working with law enforcement agencies, judicial organizations, auto manufacturers, insurers, distilled spirits companies, technology companies, safety advocates, health care professionals and emergency medical technicians to push for comprehensive state-level policies and reforms that will finally abolish drunk driving in this country.
There are so many ways you, your family and your organization can help in the Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving. You can join the fight by signing the pledge, telling others, making a donation and getting actively involved in your community. We encourage you to join the Campaign today!
Take the Pledge
The first step of support is to sign onto the Campaign Pledge, which expresses your support for the four pillars of the Campaign: intensive high-visibility law enforcement; full implementation of current alcohol ignition interlock technologies; exploration and development of advanced vehicle-based technology; and mobilization of grassroots efforts, led by MADD's affiliates.
Get Involved
Join this historic Campaign by joining our network of passionate volunteers. Click below to find out what you can do that take little to no time at all.
[1] Willis C., Lybrand S., Bellamy N. "Alcohol ignition interlock programmes for reducing drink driving recidivism," Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2004, Issue 4. Art. No.: CD004168. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD004168.pub2. This version first published online: October 18. 2004.
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