SHERIDAN, WYOMING – April 14, 2026 – Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is urging Americans to make safer road choices as Spring Break, Crime Victims' Rights Week, and Alcohol Awareness Month all converge this month. The nonprofit is simultaneously pushing for full implementation of the HALT Drunk Driving Law, which would require anti-drunk driving technology in every new vehicle sold in the United States, while working to clear up what it says are persistent myths about how that technology operates. With 37 people killed and more than 1,000 injured in preventable drunk driving crashes in the U.S. every single day, MADD argues the stakes have never been higher. Founded in 1980, the organization has spent four decades building the case that impaired driving is not an unavoidable tragedy but a preventable crime.
The HALT Drunk Driving Law
MADD's most urgent policy priority is the full rollout of the HALT Drunk Driving Law, which mandates that anti-drunk driving technology be built into all new vehicles. The organization has set a clear target: every new car in the U.S. equipped with this technology by 2030. Getting there was a long road — MADD worked alongside a bipartisan group of members of Congress, auto industry representatives, and the U.S. Department of Transportation for 16 years before the legislation came to fruition. Once fully implemented, the technology is projected to save more than 10,000 lives per year and prevent hundreds of thousands of injuries annually.
Why It Matters
Drunk driving is a daily emergency on American roads. Every day, 37 people die and 1,075 are injured in crashes that MADD classifies not as accidents, but as violent crimes. The numbers compound further for young people: teens who begin drinking early are seven times more likely to be involved in an alcohol-related crash, according to underage drinking data cited by MADD. Since 1980, MADD has helped cut drunk driving deaths by approximately 40% and contributed to saving nearly 500,000 lives — a record that demonstrates what sustained, organized advocacy can achieve over time. The 2030 deadline for universal adoption of anti-drunk driving technology represents the organization's most ambitious push yet, and the convergence of Spring Break and Alcohol Awareness Month makes this a particularly pointed moment for the message.
Support for Victims and Survivors
MADD provides free services to impaired driving victims, survivors, and their families — a population that has grown to nearly one million people supported since the organization's founding, as of December 2023. Services include court accompaniment and advocacy, information on victims' rights, help identifying local and national financial resources, one-on-one emotional support, peer support groups, and therapy referrals. MADD operates more than 65 offices across the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada, ensuring that most communities have a local point of contact when a family is affected by an impaired driving incident.
Prevention Programs Across All Ages
MADD runs targeted prevention programs for different age groups. For middle and high school students, the Power of Parents and Power of Youth programs provide tools and confidence to resist pressure to drink. For adults, the 21+ Prevention Program promotes safe alternatives including rideshare apps, designated drivers, and public transit. A court monitoring program works to ensure consistent sentencing that discourages repeat offenders from getting back behind the wheel impaired. The newer MADD Sports initiative brings athletes and sports figures into the campaign, using their public profiles to normalize safe habits and carry road safety messaging to a broader national audience.
MADD has set a near-term benchmark of reducing impaired driving injuries and fatalities by 20% by 2026 — a concrete, trackable goal as the organization pushes toward its longer-term mission of making drunk driving a permanent thing of the past.