MADD Takes Misguided Breathalyzer Campaign to Oprah

MADD Takes Misguided Breathalyzer Campaign to Oprah

Popular Talk Show Wrongly Confuses Legal 'Drinking & Driving' with Dangerous and Illegal 'Drunk Driving'

WASHINGTON, May 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On June 1, the Oprah Winfrey Show will feature Mothers Against Drunk Driving's "Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving," in a segment titled "Life Saving Lessons from Families Like Yours." But the show does not focus on targeting drunk drivers, but rather supports MADD's misguided efforts to eliminate all responsible drinking prior to driving. For example, the segment's tagline exhorts viewers to watch "if you have ever driven after having even just one drink."

Drunk driving accidents are rarely the result of a single drink as Oprah's website would suggest. The show features the victims and affected family members of an accident caused by a severely drunk driver with a blood alcohol level of .28%, more than three times the legal limit. However, MADD exploits this horrible incident and other similar tragedies as evidence that no one should be allowed to have a glass of wine with dinner or a beer at a ballgame before driving home.

In fact, MADD has publicly stated its eventual goal to force breathalyzers inside every car in America. Because of their cost, intrusiveness, and fallibility, these devices have traditionally been reserved for those convicted of high-blood alcohol content (BAC) levels or multiple drunk driving offenses. But MADD's campaign for universal breathalyzers will place all responsible drivers in America in the same category as the dangerous drunk drivers profiled on Oprah's show.

Most states, recognizing that the average BAC of a drunk driver in a fatal crash is more than twice the legal limit, have created graduated penalty systems that allow judges to sentence the most dangerous drivers with the harshest punishments. Proposals to mandate expensive breathalyzer devices for all responsible adults on the road, however, undermine this system and inappropriately make all drivers guilty in the face of the law.

"Oprah should know better than to allow MADD to use a heartbreaking story like this to further its campaign against responsible drinking," said Sarah Longwell, communications director of the American Beverage Institute. "There is a difference between someone who has a beer at a ball game and a binge drinker who gets behind the wheel absolutely plastered. Telling a national audience that having even one drink could cause such a tragedy is false and irresponsible."

Longwell concluded: "We all want our highways to be safe, but it is dangerously misleading to focus on responsible and social drinking when the real drunk driving problem lies with hardcore alcoholics."

The American Beverage Institute is an association of restaurants committed to the responsible serving of adult beverages. To learn more visit: http://www.americanbeverageinstitute.com/.

For further information or to arrange an interview, please call J.P. Freire at (202) 463-7110.

Source: American Beverage Institute

CONTACT: J.P. Freire of the American Beverage Institute,
+1-202-463-7110

Web site:

http://www.americanbeverageinstitute.com/

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