Since 1980, a group of mothers got together to form a group to help prevent drunk driving. The name of the organization is “Mother’s Against Drunk Driving” or “MADD” for short. “The mission of Mothers Against Drunk Driving is to stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime and prevent underage drinking.”

MADD is very pleased that due to their hard work and continuous effort to make people more aware of the true dangers of drunk driving, new fatality data from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) shows that drunk driving fatalities declined 9.7% ; 11,773 in 2008 and 13,041 deaths in 2007. According to DOT, “the number of overall traffic fatalities reported in 2008 hit their lowest level since 1961.”  The numbers for 2009 show a continued decrease so far.

Arizona and New Mexico lead the nation in reductions of  drunk driving fatality with 20% less in Arizona and 21% drop in New Mexico.  Both states require all drunk driving offenders to install an ignition interlock in their car which is believed to be the reason for the decline.  The state-by-state fatality numbers are available at

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811172.pdf.

http://www.madd.org/