Persuasive Presentation: Mothers Against Drunk Driving

Persuasive Presentation: Mothers Against Drunk Driving

Once a life is snatched, no amount of tears, no amount of apologies and no amount of money can bring back the dead to life!  Sudden and unexpected death has shattered so many dreams and has cut short so many promising careers.  Death has left behind grieving parents, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands and its most hapless victims, orphaned children.  You can be the victim. It can be your husband or your wife, or your son or your daughter, or your father or your mother.  It can happen as you go to work or as you are going home or as you walk down the street or even as you clean your front yard.  It is senseless and it is tragic for it is totally preventable.  What is this death? It is death caused by drunken drivers.

In this presentation, I will talk about this menace to our safety and security: drunken driving.  What is being done to minimize if not to eliminate it?  What can still be done or needs to be done? And lastly, what can you do to possibly save your own life or the lives of people you love?
According to the National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA), every minute of every day, someone is involved in a car accident. According to Car Accident Statistics, 32% or 1 out 3, traffic fatalities are caused by drunk driving; speeding 31%; distraction 16%; and bad weather 11%.  In other words, alcohol-impaired driving continues to be one of the biggest safety issues on U.S. roads. In 2018 alone, 10,511 people were killed in alcohol-impaired crashes, a decrease from the 10,908 deaths in 2017. According to idrivesafely.com approximately 800 people are injured each day in drunk driving accidents, totaling to 290,000 alcohol-involved traffic accident injuries each year and approximately 83 percent of drunk drivers involved in fatal crashes are between the ages of 21 and 44 years old. Every day in the U.S., approximately 29 people die in drunk driving accidents, and each year about 215 children under age 14 die as a result of a drunk driving accident.   
What is being done to curb this mortal danger to innocent people? Multiple programs have contributed to the decrease in alcohol-related deaths on U.S. roads, like high visibility enforcement and minimum drinking age laws. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that minimum drinking age laws have saved more than 31,000 lives since 1975, with 538 lives saved in 2017 alone. The prevalence of alcohol-impaired drivers in fatal crashes varies by age. 21- to 24-year-old drivers comprise 27% of drunken drivers involved in fatal crashes.
In California, new statutes were made effective on January 1, 2014, to broaden the meaning of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs to include prescription medications if it can be shown that those medications impaired the driver.

What has been done are not enough to significantly minimize the danger of drunken drivers.  We still have too many fatalities.  You or one of your loved ones can be the next victim!  Or worse, you or one of your loved ones can be the next DUI offender.
On May 3, 1980, Cari Lightner, a 13-year-old girl, was killed by a drunken hit-and-run driver at Sunset and New York Avenues in Fair Oaks, California. The 46-year-old driver, who had recently been arrested for another DUI hit-and-run, left Cari’s body at the scene.[4] Cari’s mother, Candace (Candy) Lightner, organized Mothers Against Drunk Driving and subsequently served as its founding president. The Irving, Texasbased[2] organization was founded on September 5, 1980, in California[1] by Candace Lightner after her 13-year-old daughter, Cari, was killed by a drunk driver.[4]:

The mission of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is to end drunk driving, help fight drugged driving, support the victims of these violent crimes, and prevent underage drinking. MADD “advocates that schools and other organizations hosting social and athletic gatherings for youth take positive steps to ensure that alcoholic beverages not be present at those gatherings”.
This organization favors strict policy in a variety of areas, including  lowering what is the illegal blood alcohol content,  using stronger sanctions for DUI offenders, including mandatory jail sentences, treatment for alcoholism and other alcohol abuse issues, ignition interlock devices,[10] and license suspensions; maintaining the minimum legal drinking age at 21 years; mandating alcohol breath-testing ignition interlock devices for everyone convicted of driving while legally impaired. With all this being implemented, MADD believes that DUI incidents will be reduced and lives will be saved.

There are several ways we can support the mission of MADD, online gift, corporate giving, walk with us, vehicle donation, scheduled giving, memorial giving, DIY fundraising, give locally, and the most contribution we can give is be an advocate for a change in our community, use our voice to help us pass legislation, increase awareness and implement lifesaving programs to keep our roads safe from drunk and drugged driving and prevent underage drinking.

How to Get Involved With MADD
Become a member of your state or local MADD organization. If you want to get involved with MADD, this is their contact number.877.MADD.HELP (1-877-623-3435)

The next time you hear or watch news about a car accident, think about that man or woman who is forever gone from this world, think about the husband, wife, sons and daughters, and parents left behind, or think about the drunker driver whose life has changed forever.  And all of these could have been prevented. You could have helped prevent it if you joined MADD.
Lastly, be a model not only a mentor.  Be an example of your advocacy. You can drink as much alcoholic beverages as you want but you have many choices to avoid accident. Stay over at your friends house. Use Lift or Uber. Find a designated driver after the gathering. Think about the impact and the consequences of getting behind the steering wheel under the influence. Your life or someone else life is at risk. Never take that risk..