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Candace Lightner

Biography

Candace Lightner founded Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) in 1980 after her daughter was killed by a drunk driver, and was instrumental in expanding MADD into the national organization it is today.

Lightner has split with the group in recent years. She strongly opposed MADD’s fight to lower the national drunk driving arrest threshold to 0.08% BAC, on the basis that “The majority of crashes occur with high blood-alcohol levels, the .15, .18 and .25 drinkers. Lowering the blood-alcohol concentration was not a solution …”

Lightner has continued her disapproval of MADD’s agenda, telling the Washington Times in 2002 that “[MADD] has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned… I didn’t start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving.”

Background

Founder, Mothers Against Drunk Driving

Associated Organizations and Foundations

Organization: Mothers Against Drunk Driving Position: Founder and Past President Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) began with the admirable goal of reducing drunk-driving traffic fatalities by educating the nation about the... find out more »

Quotes

“Even MADD’s founder thinks the group has gone too far. ‘I think they’ve become far more neoprohibitionist over the years.’”
— Candace Lightner, as quoted in Investor’s Business Daily, September 2000

Copyright © 2012 Center for Consumer Freedom. All rights reserved.