Drunk Driving Haunts Roadways During Halloween

DALLAS (October 27, 2005)

This Halloween, the streets will be filled with scary sights: drunk driving crashes. The Halloween three day period is one of the deadliest holidays for alcohol-related traffic fatalities, more deadly than Memorial Day. Last year, more than half - 54 percent - of all traffic deaths were alcohol related killing 129 people from October 30 to November 1, and many others were injured. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) reminds everyone to spend as much time planning a safe ride to and from celebrations as planning their Halloween costumes.

"With the number of families and children on the roads for Halloween, we ask the public to designate a sober driver or find another safe ride home to keep Halloween fun, not frightening," says Glynn Birch, MADD national president. "We want to make sure that every knock at the door comes from smiling trick-or-treaters not police officers with heartbreaking news."

For those throwing Halloween parties, MADD has a Safe Party Guide that encourages party hosts to offer a variety of non-alcoholic beverages for designated drivers, ask guests to appoint a sober driver or alternative transportation before the party begins and not let guests mix their own drinks. Responsible party hosts never serve alcohol to anyone under 21 and never allow drinking guests to get behind the wheel. The MADD Safe Party Guide is available at www.madd.org/party.

Birch adds, "As hosts, friends and family, we ask that you do your part to prevent others from drinking and driving. You can save a life." In a recent MADD/Nationwide Insurance Survey conducted by Gallup, nearly one in five (17 percent) drivers say they had, in the past week, encouraged someone not to drive because they suspected he/she had been drinking too much. Among this group, three in every four (77 percent) said they were successful in preventing someone from drinking and driving.

Each year, there are nearly 17,000 alcohol-related traffic fatalities and half a million injuries across the country. MADD's mission is to stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime and prevent underage drinking. MADD is a 501(c)(3) charity with approximately 600 offices and 2 million members and supporters nationwide. Founded in 1980, MADD is celebrating its silver anniversary and the more than 300,000 lives it has helped save.