MADD Campaign Against Drunk Driving Reaches Out to Include Minorities

Preventing underage drinking in minority communities

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) created a task force of representatives from a variety of ethnic/racial organizations and traffic safety professionals to provide advice about how to reach special populations effectively.

MADD organized a conference, "The National Diversity Forum: Creating Partnerships to Save Lives," in February 1999, in Miami, Fla., in partnership with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

The forum brought together 150 people from 125 organizations, including representatives of major African-American, Hispanic, Native American and Asian/Pacific Islander constituency groups. The secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation and the administrator of the NHTSA also attended.

Key Findings: MADD commissioned a research study of more than 199,000 people fatally injured in crashes over a five-year period to determine the percentage of alcohol-related fatalities by ethnic group.

Among the findings:

  • Native Americans have a much higher proportion of alcohol-related traffic fatalities than whites (73% compared with 41%).
  • Asians and Pacific Islanders have a significantly lower proportion (27%).
  • Alcohol is involved in slightly less than half (47%) of the traffic fatalities of African-Americans.
  • Mexican-Americans have the highest fatality rate among Hispanic groups (59.7%).

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