MADD Statement in Response to NTSB Impaired Driving Recommendations

-- MADD Disappointed with Latest Recommendations --

WASHINGTON, Nov. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- While Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) respects the National Transportation Safety Board's commitment to highway safety, we are extremely disappointed that today's update of the Board's impaired driving recommendations fails to take proven steps to prevent drunk driving, which causes almost a third of all highway deaths.

For 12 years, the NTSB has focused on so-called "hard core" drinking drivers, who are only a subset of the overall impaired driving problem. Meanwhile, MADD's Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving®, launched in 2006, is focused on the issue as a whole and includes the following data-driven solutions: high visibility law enforcement efforts, such as sobriety checkpoints; adoption of all-offender ignition interlock laws in every state; and a bold research program to develop non-intrusive technologies that prevent drunk drivers from starting a vehicle. It is important to note that all three elements of MADD's Campaign were endorsed by Congress in the recent MAP-21 legislation.

We urge the NTSB to act immediately to modernize its drunk driving recommendations by supporting all three elements of the Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving, with a specific call for enactment of state all-offender interlock laws in the 2013 legislative sessions. MADD looks forward to working with the NTSB to eliminate drunk driving, save lives and prevent injuries.

SOURCE Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)