Drunk Drivers Make a Choice

Throughout the last decade, MADD had insisted that drunk driving and the overwhelming number of injuries and deaths caused by drunk driving are not just “accidents.”

Webster’s dictionary defines “accident” as “an unpleasant and unintentional happening, sometimes resulting from negligence” and “accidental” as “happening by chance, outside the normal course of events.”

“Crash” is defined as “to fall or land violently out of control so as to be damaged or smashed.”

While a person who chooses to drink and drive may not intentionally choose to cause harm or destruction, they do make two very clear choices: 1) to use alcohol or other drugs, and 2) to get in a vehicle and drive. These two choices are not made accidentally or by chance.

In 1989 alone, 22,415 persons were killed in alcohol-related traffic crashes and approximately 345,000 suffered injuries.

About 80,000 of those injuries were serious and life changing.

With those numbers in mind, please remember that they were not “accidents.”

MADD’s mission is to stop drunk driving and to support victims of this violent crime.

You can help us achieve our mission by refraining from use of the word “accident” and using the word “crash” or “collision” when referring to a drunk driving.

KATHY CARTER, Chapter president, MADD Ventura County