MADD stands for 'mothers against drunk driving' but it also works to support other facets related to drunken driving. In 1980, Candice Lightner's 13-year-old daughter was killed on a suburban California street by a hit and run accident involving a drunken driver. MADD started out as a tiny organization in Lightner's daughter's bedroom, making it through its first few years by growing off public donations from their small Californian community. The organization gained national attention after a 1983 television movie was released bout Lightner's story. MADD connects to the public with personal stories about victims and impaired driver's tragic mistakes instead of spreading impersonal statistics. Alcohol-related deaths have dropped to 14,000 (in 2008) from over 30,000 a year since the year MADD was formed (1980).
MADD is a non-profit organization that was started by the mother of 13-year old victim of a drunken driving accident in California in 1980. The organization's mission is to reduce the number of drunken driving victims and to prevent drunk driving in America. MADD supports the education of the dangers of drinking and driving, and also supports victims of drunken driving and well as the impaired drivers involved in accidents. For example, MADD was directly involved in enforcing the illegal Blood Alcohol Content at 0.08% and played a role in maintaining the legal drinking age at 21. As well as enforcing the BAC content laws, in 2005 MADD was partially responsible for the lowering of the BAC from 0.10% to 0.08%. MADD is also involved in fighting to maintain strict punishments such as jail time, ignition interlock devices, license suspension, and most importantly, drug abuse treatment programs to help prevent future drunken driving accidents. MADD doesn't just work for stricter DUI laws but also lends out support to drunken driving victims and their friends and families. Most significantly, MADD lends support to the impaired drivers in drunken driving incidents and DUI's to try to prevent future accidents. MADD's work has saved over 300,000 lives to this day by preventing drunk driving, supporting the victims and preventing underage drinking.
