| National Sobriety Checkpoint Week | |
The National Safety Council predicts that another 645 Americans are likely to die on the nation's highways during this four-day 4th of July holiday period with 50 percent of those deaths (322) involving alcohol.
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In hopes of proving this year's prediction wrong, MADD is working with law enforcement agencies to coordinate a nationwide "You Drink & Drive, You Lose" education and enforcement blitz over the Fourth of July holiday to combat drunk driving -- the most frequently committed violent crime in the nation.
The National Sobriety Checkpoint Week (June 28-July 5) campaign will alert citizens that police will be out in full force to catch drunk drivers during the Fourth of July holiday.
"We do not have to accept these death toll predictions as a matter of fact or fate, because there is something each of us can do to help our friends and family members arrive alive," said MADD national president Millie I. Webb.
Webb and her husband Roy were severely burned in a crash caused by a drinking driver with a .08 percent blood-alcohol level. Their daughter Lori and nephew Mitchell died as a result of their injuries. The crash also forced the premature birth and caused legal blindness of her daughter Kara.
Becoming Complacent?
The checkpoint week campaign, partnered with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's "You Drink & Drive, You Lose" program, also will offer safe driving tips (such as always buckling up and designating a sober driver) and suggestions for from MADD's "Safe Party Guide."MADD, crash victims, police chiefs, and the U.S. Transportation Secretary held a news conference and sobriety checkpoint in Washington D.C. to kickoff the "National Sobriety Checkpoint Week" law enforcement mobilization and education campaign to combat drunk driving.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently released a preliminary report on total highway fatalities in 1999 which showed that alcohol-related traffic deaths dropped to an estimated 15,794 last year, just slightly under the final count in 1998 (15,935) and in 1997 (16,189).
"The good news is that alcohol-related traffic deaths dropped slightly last year to a modern day record low, and deaths have been cut by more than 40 percent since MADD was founded in 1980," Webb said. "But we are now seeing a leveling off in the drop in drunk driving deaths and I fear our country has reached a complacent plateau in the fight against drunk driving."
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