Evaluating

the capacity of
Mothers Against Drunk
Driving
-By Jaemin Lee-







1

Introduction

As of now, all states in the United States of America agree that it is
unlawful for individuals to drive with the blood alcohol concentration of .08 or
higher.1 Besides the following regulation, a number of other laws and penalties
on alcohol-impaired driving have been enhanced since the late 1900s. Mothers
Against Drunk Driving, which is known as MADD in acronym, is known to have
played a significant role in changing American’s perception of drunk driving and
bringing about new legislation in an effort to bring an end to the alcohol-
impaired driving.
On May 3, 1980, a 13-year-old girl Cari Lightner was killed by a drunk
driver in California. Distraught and heartbroken, Cari’s mother Candace Lightner
founded a group called the Mothers Against Drunk Driving in the following year
to provide assistance to victims of alcohol-impaired driving and to increase
public awareness of the problem of drinking an drugged driving.2 Since its
establishment, Mothers Against Drunk Driving has participated in various
activities including public education, lobbying the government, and providing
help to people who had been affected by drunk driving, and from the 1990s, the
group has expanded on preventing underage drinking in order to end the
alcohol-impaired driving. As of now, the official website of the interest group
says that “the mission of MADD is to end drunk driving, help fight drugged
driving, support the victims of these violent crimes, and prevent underage
drinking.”

Organization Structure and Resources

Unlike business groups that have mobilized for their financial benefits,
Mothers Against Drunk Driving is a non-profit organization that has dedicated its
efforts to reduce the number of alcohol-impaired driving accidents to zero. As

1 “.08 BAC Legal Limit.” Responsibility.org, www.responsibility.org/end-impaired-

driving/solutions/prevention/08-bac-legal-limit/.
2 “History.” MADD, www.madd.org/history/.

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mentioned in Frank Weed’s article “The Impact of Support Resources on Local
Chapter Operations in the Antidrunk-driving Movement”, the organization’s
membership is mainly composed of two types of beneficiary constituencies:
beneficiary and conscience. The former consists of people who had been affected
by drunk-driving and the latter of people who had not been directly influenced
but support the organization because they believe alcohol-impaired driving
should be put to an end.3
As shown on the website of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the
organization has at least one office in every state in the United States and every
province in Canada. The interest group is known to have a federated structure,
not a top-down model when it comes to organizing its constituent groups. The
headquarter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving is located in Irving, Texas, and it
does not directly control its local chapters. As described by Frank Weed, the
organization does not send a group of its members to establish local chapters.
Rather, a group with over 20 people needs to make an inquiry about becoming a
local chapter, and once it is established, it keeps its member dues and other
financial resources to itself. With the resources available, the local constituents
aim to achieve the group’s goal by promoting public awareness, providing youth
education, assisting victims, and working to change legislation or promote new
laws.4
Since the group is not profit-oriented, Mothers Against Drunk Driving
derive their financial resources from member dues and philanthropic donations.
The group does not restrict people from becoming members, and even non-
members are welcome to make donations for the group. The money they have
received has been used in a variety of activities including workshops, member
trainings, public education, fundraising, and others.

Associations

3 Weed, Frank J. “The Impact of Support Resources on Local Chapter Operations in the Antidrunk-

Driving Movement.” The Sociological Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 1, 1989, pp. 78
4 Weed, Frank J. “The Impact of Support Resources on Local Chapter Operations in the Antidrunk-

Driving Movement.” The Sociological Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 1, 1989, pp. 79–80

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 As mentioned above, within the federated organization model, Mothers
Against Drunk Driving has cooperated with its local chapters and its affiliate
MADD Canada to take part in a variety of activities to stop drunk driving. In
addition to working together with its constituent chapters, the organization has
collaborated with schools, scout troops, and recreational organizations to host
youth educational programs on alcohol-impaired driving.5
Furthermore, in the 1990s, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Advocates
for Highway and Auto Safety put joint efforts to fight against drunk driving by
launching the RTS system that involved rating each state according to its efficacy
in preventing alcohol-impaired driving accidents. MADD and the Advocates
created a 22-member task force, with twelve coming from the former and others
coming from other organizations including Mid-American Research Institute and
Boston University.6 The RTS result was released on the day before the
Thanksgiving Day in 1993 with the United States receiving B- for its effort to
fight alcohol-impaired driving and it played a significant role in drawing media’s
attention on Mothers Against Drunk Driving’s activities. As mentioned in the
article “MADD Rates the States: A Media Advocacy Event to Advance the Agenda
Against Alcohol-Impaired Drinking”, “highlights from the national coverage
included national news stories on NBM’s “Nightly News” and CNN, interviews
with MADD leaders’ “Nightline” and “CBS This Morning,” and articles by the
Associated Press and USA Today.”

Efficacy

Since Candace Lightner founded the organization, Mothers Against Drunk
Driving has played a significant role in decreasing the number of accidents
caused by alcohol-impaired drivers. The number of drunk driving fatalities has

5 Mccarthy, John D., and Mark Wolfson. “Resource Mobilization by Local Social Movement

Organizations: Agency, Strategy, and Organization in the Movement Against Drinking and
Driving.” American Sociological Review, vol. 61, no. 6, 1996, pp. 1074-1075
6 Russell, Anne, Voas, Robert B., DeJong, William, and Chaloupka, Marla. “MADD Rates the States:

A Media Advocacy Event to Advance the Agenda against Alcohol-Impaired Driving.” Public Health
Reports, vol. 110, no. 3, 1995, pp. 240-243

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been steadily decreasing since the 1980s, and as of 2017, it only accounts for 29%
of the number of total vehicle traffic accidents in the United States.7
The RTS system launched jointly by the MADD and the Advocates
contributed to the states taking actions to reduce the number of drunk driving
accidents. Michigan, which received a letter score of C in the report, invited
MADD to participate in a state-sponsored Alcohol Issues Forum and in California,
which had a B, the head of the state’s alcohol and drug program met with the
non-profit group to discuss further on how to work together in future.8
In addition to that, Mothers Against Drunk Driving has been involved in
lobbying activities to bring about new legislation and laws. Their lobbying efforts
eventually led to the lowering of the Blood Alcohol Concentration in the United
States from BAC .1 to BAC .08. Besides that, the interest group has also played a
crucial role in enacting the National Minimum Drinking Age Act that introduced a
federal penalty for states that did not raise the legal drinking age to 21.9

Conclusion

Laws on drunk driving were first passed in the early 1900s but because
public awareness on the seriousness of the crime was relatively unknown, the
number of alcohol-impaired driving accidents in the United States was relatively
high compared to that in the present. With the works of Mothers Against Drunk
Driving and other organizations that shared the same goal, the frequency of
drunk driving accidents has been reducing greatly since the 1980s. John
McCarthy and Mark Wolfson mentioned in their articles that “social movement
organizations typically pursue one or more of the following three general

7 “Drunk Driving Fatality Statistics.” Responsibility.org, www.responsibility.org/alcohol-

statistics/drunk-driving-statistics/drunk-driving-fatality-statistics/.
Hamilton, Wendy J. “Mothers Against Drunk Driving-MADD in the USA.” Injury Prevention, BMJ
Publishing Group Ltd, 1 June 2000, injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/6/2/90.
Hamilton, Wendy J. “Mothers Against Drunk Driving-MADD in the USA.” Injury Prevention, BMJ
Publishing Group Ltd, 1 June 2000, injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/6/2/90.
8 Russell, Anne, Voas, Robert B., DeJong, William, and Chaloupka, Marla. “MADD Rates the States:

A Media Advocacy Event to Advance the Agenda against Alcohol-Impaired Driving.” Public Health
Reports, vol. 110, no. 3, 1995, pp. 244
9 Nelson, Steven. “MADD Founder: Don't Lower the Legal BAC Limit.” U.S. News & World Report,

U.S. News & World Report, 28 May 2013,

www.usnews.com/news/newsgram/articles/2013/05/28/madd-founder-dont-lower-the-legal-
bac-limit.

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strategies: (1) general education, (2) direct service to the victims of the social
conditions movement leaders and adherents define as unacceptable; and (3)
structural change, which involves attempting to change laws, authorities, and/or
regimes, and sometimes involves using “unruly tactics”.10
Mothers Against Drunk Driving has been one of these social movement
organizations as they have been providing youth education to increase
awareness of drunk driving and direct assistance to people who had been
affected by alcohol-impaired traffic accidents, and have been taking part in
lobbying activists to bring about changes in legislation that have played crucial
roles in reducing the number of the tragic atrocities.
With its federated organizational model, Mothers Against Drunk Driving
continues dedicate its efforts in reducing the number of alcohol and drug-
impaired traffic accidents to zero. Even though its involvement in enacting the
National Minimum Drinking Age Act has drawn criticism from its founder
Candance Lightner, who believed that the group had been orienting towards
fighting against alcohol, not drunk driving,11 there is no doubt that MADD has
contributed significantly to changing people’s perception about alcohol-impaired
driving and greatly reducing the number of the tragic atrocities.

10 Mccarthy, John D., and Mark Wolfson. “Resource Mobilization by Local Social Movement

Organizations: Agency, Strategy, and Organization in the Movement Against Drinking and
Driving.” American Sociological Review, vol. 61, no. 6, 1996, pp. 1072
11 “MADD Struggles to Remain Relevant.” The Washington Times, The Washington Times, 6 Aug.

2002, www.washingtontimes.com/news/2002/aug/6/20020806-035702-2222r/.

6
Bibliography

Mccarthy, John D., and Mark Wolfson. “Resource Mobilization by Local Social Movement
Organizations: Agency, Strategy, and Organization in the Movement Against Drinking
and Driving.” American Sociological Review, vol. 61, no. 6, 1996, pp. 1070–1086.

Weed, Frank J. “The Impact of Support Resources on Local Chapter Operations in the
Antidrunk-Driving Movement.” The Sociological Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 1, 1989, pp. 77–91

Russell, Anne, Voas, Robert B., DeJong, William, and Chaloupka, Marla. “MADD Rates the
States: A Media Advocacy Event to Advance the Agenda against Alcohol-Impaired
Driving.” Public Health Reports, vol. 110, no. 3, 1995, pp. 240-245

“Why 21?” MADD, www.madd.org/the-solution/teen-drinking-prevention/why-21/.

“CDC - Fact Sheets-Minimum Legal Drinking Age - Alcohol.” Centers for Disease Control
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“How Effective Was/Is the Mothers Against Drunk Driving Campaign?” Alcohol.org,
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“MOTHER'S AGAINST DRUNK DRIVING (MADD).” Officer,
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Hamilton, Wendy J. “Mothers Against Drunk Driving-MADD in the USA.” Injury
Prevention, BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, 1 June 2000,
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“Drunk Driving Fatality Statistics.” Responsibility.org, www.responsibility.org/alcohol-
statistics/drunk-driving-statistics/drunk-driving-fatality-statistics/.

“.08 BAC Legal Limit.” Responsibility.org, www.responsibility.org/end-impaired-
driving/solutions/prevention/08-bac-legal-limit/.

“History.” MADD, www.madd.org/history/.

“MADD Struggles to Remain Relevant.” The Washington Times, The Washington Times, 6
Aug. 2002, www.washingtontimes.com/news/2002/aug/6/20020806-035702-2222r/.