Drunk driving is an important, serious and mortal issue in the world.

I need help to rewrite this essay.

Drunk driving is an important, serious and mortal issue in the world. The repercussions are life altering and cause people to become more aware about it after the fact. Mothers Against Drunk Driving is an organization that brought much awareness to the nation after the death of a child due to a drunk driver.

The nation’s leading nonprofit organizations towards drunk driving is Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Founded in 1980, their purpose is work to help protect families from underage drinking and drunk driving. (“Mission statement,” 2012) “MADD is the United Sates leader in the fight against drunk driving.”(Hamilton 2000). Founder Candy Lightner decided to start the organization after her 13-year-old daughter Cari was killed by a drunk driver. (Wooster 2000) She explains after her daughter’s death and saw it as “a way to address a serious social problem that had take my daughter from me and way to fill my time for years to come.” (Wooster 2000).

According to their website, the organization’s mission is “To aid the victims of crimes performed by individuals driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, to aid the families of such victims and to increase public awareness of the problem of drinking and drugged driving.” (“Mission statement,” 2012) To increase awareness MADD focuses on three steps, Support our heroes, sober to start, and secure the future. (“Goals and strategies,” 2012) “Support our heroes means to maintain high-visibility law enforcement to catch drunk drivers and discourage others from driving drunk. Exemplary ways to be sober before you would be to require ignition interlock devices, or in-car breathalyzers, for all drunk drivers, to prove they are sober before their car will start. Secure the future is the development of technology to determine automatically whether or not the driver is above the legal limit of .08 and failing to operate if the driver is drunk.” ("Goals and strategies," 2012)

MADD’s goal for underage drinking is to build an environment that enables them to grow and mature “by developing and implementing tactics that discourage adults from providing alcohol to underage drinkers.” (“Goals and strategies,” 2012) Their other services include helping victim services and to spread change.

Since MADD started the positive effect had dramatically changed many lives. Drunk driving has decreased while the convictions have increased. “From the 2002 and 2003 U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 21% of minors ages 16–20 reported DUI involving either alcohol or illicit drugs in the past-year. 17% reported past year DUI involving alcohol.” (Maxwell, Freeman, Davey 2009) The amount of underage drivers that are intoxicated while driving is upsetting. It is nervous to see new drivers on the road, but shocking to be willing to endanger themselves and other people in the car with them. Driving is always a new and exciting experience, but it isn’t worth risking your life due to intoxication. From the Bureau of Justice Statistics, “in 1999, the number of arrests for driving while intoxicated fell from 1,124 per 100,000 licensed drivers in 1986 to 809,000 per 100,000 in 1997. But demographics have also played a role. Federal researchers contend that the general aging of population is one reason why there are fewer drunk drivers. The two other reasons for declining drunk-driving injuries and deaths: safer cars and higher rates of seat belt usage. ” (Maxwell, Freeman, Davey 2009). As a result of MADD, there have been records showing that positive results of less deaths for the past 33 years. People have become more aware of the laws and technology has advanced greatly to save more lives. According to MADD’s website, “Every 53 minutes on average, someone is killed in a drunk driving crash (9,878 people in total in 2011).” (“About drunk driving,” 2012) Though the numbers have dropped over the last few decades, the number is too high. There has been progress in the past decades, but there are still people dying form drunk driving. I feel that since MADD has made great strides in changing policies they should start educating people. There should be more services that teach people about drinking and how to do it responsibly. If more people are educated then the hope is people can make better choices.

The priority population MADD has focused on has been anyone who drinks and has a license to operate a motor vehicle. If you have a license to operate a motor vehicle and you partake in the consumption of alcoholic beverages, then you are vulnerable to drunk driving. MADD is an organization that is “the United States leader in the fight against drunk driving” (Hamilton, 2000). The people who stated the organization were a group of mothers who were outraged by a justice system that did not recognize that drunk driving as a violent crime (Hamilton 2000). With this being said, the association also targets families of victims whose lives were affected by drunk driving. The main way the people learn about MADD is public exposure through policy changes and asking for funding. MADD works to “strengthen existing driving laws and adopt new ones” (Hamilton 2000). They do this by using research to establish public policy positions. (Hamilton 2000). MADD gains funding by donations from the public, corporate gifts, and grants. Exposing to the public has enabled them to secure public dollars which aids in their goal of reducing drunk driving.

The target group interacts and learns about MADD by seeing the change that they bring. Also they may donate to the cause for feeling that their goals are relevant in their lives. The attitude towards MADD has been helpful to the community because much awareness has been promoted since it started. This organization has been educating people to not drive drunk and to be helpful for those individuals who have been affected by drunk driving. Because of MADD, there have been fewer deaths due to changing the drinking age from 18 to 21, and the lowering the blood alcohol content from 0.10% to 0.08%, (Wooster 2000). Through the organization people have been educated on the importance of driving safe by other people’s experiences, media commercials and attending events with guest speakers in schools. The consequences for the behavior have been a revoked license, paying high fines, education programs and incarceration. (Maxwell, Freeman, Davey 2009). Friends also influence others to not drive drunk because of the negative possibilities of what could happen to that person. The MADD website states their outreach programs consist of Teen Driver Safety Program, Power of Parents, Crash Car, Victim Services, and Underage Drinking Prevention Programs. (“Programs and outreach,” 2012) By having alliances with these programs allows the idea of drunk driving to become more of a reality. It allows people to witness and experience scenarios related to drunk driving. I could make this organization becoming more effective by requiring schools to have the Every 15 Minute Programs event, and providing low cost, late night driving services. I would also require a program for all new drivers to attend that educates them on the issue of drunk driving. relevant in their lives.