Saving Lives

Last week was National Road Safety week. I am reminded about how much we all owe to the organization M.A.D.D. (Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the people who volunteer with them.

M.A.D.D. was started in California by Candace Lightner, whose 13-year-old daughter was killed by a drunk driver. She did not want her daughter to have died in vain and wanted to save others from going through the pain and agony of losing a child because a driver had been drinking.

Impaired driving is preventable and MADD mobilized mothers and others to do something about it. The organization has since grown and has many offices in the U.S. and Canada and several hundred full-time employees.

The main participants though are volunteers most of whom are motivated by the loss of a child. They lobbied to have minimum age drinking laws changed as well as laws for the use of technology. There is no knowing how many lives in North America have been saved by the work done by these people. However, one estimate on Wikipedia for Canada places the number of lives saved since 1982 at over 30000.

The Human Cost of Impaired Driving

Everyone who goes on to the highway owes a huge thank you to the people who have lobbied and worked on everyone’s behalf for safer roads and the decrease in drunk driving.

Many other organizations doing all sorts of good things have also been started and supported by people who have been affected by a calamity, wanting to prevent it happening again.

During this week, I encourage you to take a moment to say thank you to not only those who have worked for M.A.D.D. to make roads safer and decrease impaired driving, but also the other volunteers – most of whom you do not know and will never know – who make our world a better place in so many ways. https://madd.ca/pages/

Better still, I encourage you to get involved, volunteer in some way yourself and in turn make the world a better place for others. Do not wait until a calamity happens.

Till next time.

Chris Snyder