Feds Want BAC Reductions, MADD Opposes

The National Transportation Safety Board voted earlier this month to encourage states to lower their current legal blood alcohol content limits for drivers from .08 to .05 percent, saying the change would save lives.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (“MADD”) founder Candace Lightner, who led the successful national campaign in the 1980s to crack down on drunk driving after her daughter was killed in an alcohol-induced accident, doesn’t support the proposal.

“I don’t believe it is a practical long-term solution,” Lightner told U.S. News. “You could go to 0.0 and that would save lives. You could go to a 40 mph speed limit and that would save lives, but you have to look at what’s realistic.”

The laws would likely save lives in the short-term due to media attention, she said, but ultimately “won’t be enforced and will be a waste of time,” distracting from what Lightner sees as the most significant highway safety issues: high-BAC drunk driving, drugged driving and distracted driving.

Not often do we agree with MADD on anything, but in this case we do. Statistics show that there should be a greater emphasis on distracted driving which account for as many accidents as impaired driving.