MADD Seeks Stiffer Drunk Driving Limits

Hundreds of members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving gathered at the Capitol on Wednesday to mark the 20th anniversary of MADD’s founding and to again urge Congress to set tougher limits on what constitutes drunk driving.

The group wants lawmakers to set a standard of 0.08% blood-alcohol content as proof of drunk driving, the same limit adopted by the District of Columbia and 18 states, including Virginia. A new Gallup Poll shows a majority of Americans support making the 0.08% limit mandatory in all states, a move that MADD officials say would save about 500 lives a year.

“Today, we return to the U.S. Capitol where 20 years ago, grief-stricken mothers met and launched the nationwide MADD movement and a war on drunk driving,” said Millie I. Webb, MADD’s national president. “Our first order of business 20 years ago was to tell the American public the truth about drunk driving. We said something that shocked a lot of people: Drunk driving is not an accident, it’s a crime, a violent crime--in fact, the most frequently committed violent crime in the nation.”