I. Grant Proposal Executive Summary Since its founding in 1980, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has been instrumental in helping reduce drunk driving incidents by over 50 percent. However, alcohol‐related traffic crashes are still the biggest contributor of traffic deaths accounting for over 10,000 deaths every year on our nation’s roadways. In 2015 and 2016, significant increases occurred in these deaths and the numbers are currently trending in the wrong direction. Drug‐impaired driving is an emerging public safety threat. Lack of documented crash data leaves the exact severity of this problem unknown. In 2015, MADD added drugged driving to its mission statement and developed a task force to address this emerging problem. Law enforcement represents the front line in reducing almost all types of traffic deaths. Because deaths are up across the country, it is imperative that the law enforcement community has support and has the tools needed to keep our roads and communities safe. The general public has become complacent to this public safety threat while law enforcement has dropped significantly in this area over the last 6 years. In 2016, 10,996 people lost their lives on our nation’s roadways due to drunk driving. This was a 3.4 percent increase from the 10,320 lives lost in 2015. This comes after a 3.6 increase in the 2015 alcohol related fatality numbers. Twenty‐nine percent of the 37,806 people killed in traffic crashes in 2016 were alcohol‐related with a driver’s BAC at .08 or higher. Impaired driving is a 100 percent preventable crime. As previously stated, drug‐impaired driving is an emerging threat and its exact severity is unknown. The opioid overdose crisis, the abuse of prescription drugs and the legalization of the recreational use of marijuana are all‐emerging as public safety threats across the country, especially on our nation’s roadways. The public and safety community needs to understand what new strategies law enforcement needs in order to better address this issue and to be reinvigorated to develop new strategies to fight all aspects of the impaired driving threat. Under a Cooperative Agreement Project with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), MADD brought together law enforcement executives from across the country to highlight and address the impaired driving problem. MADD convened a 2½ day National Law Enforcement Impaired Driving Summit in the Washington DC area on November 13‐15, 2018. Cooperative Agreement Project funding allowed for 75 law enforcement executives and 10 MADD Staff to participate. MADD and NHTSA collaborated in the development of the attendee list, agenda, and speakers. Additionally, subject matter experts were brought in to address all areas of the impaired driving problem. The following report documents the details of this MADD National Law Enforcement Impaired Driving Summit and the challenges and strategies discussed and developed by attendees. Also included are plans for convening small agency summits to develop regional plans and establish a renewed effort and mission to fight impaired driving and to increase strong traffic safety enforcement efforts and programs. II. MADD Grant Proposal MADD submitted its proposal to host a 2 ½ day National Law Enforcement Impaired Driving Summit for 75 Law Enforcement Officers and 10 MADD Staff and National Board members. The original proposal is attached to this report (see Appendix A).
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