A Season to Celebrate
By
Jan Withers
|
December 20, 2012
|
Filed in:
General
Happy Holidays!
This holiday season, I am celebrating my wonderful family and friends, and the incredible progress we've made together this year. For the first time in history, drunk driving deaths have fallen below 10,000, and we could not have done that without your help—your support, your donations, your time spent volunteering, your emails and phone calls to legislators, your participation in Walk Like MADD and other events, and even your Facebook shares and re-tweets!
To show my thanks, I want to share with you a special Holiday video message.
Thanks to you, each year we save more lives, serve more victims and bring awareness to the dangers of drunk driving and underage drinking.
We know that there is still much work to be done and we won’t stop until there are no more drunk driving deaths. I hope that you’ll stand with us until we achieve that goal.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all that you do for MADD, and happy holidays!
Warmly,
Jan Withers
MADD National President
Study Shows Effects of Teen Alcohol Use
By
MADD
|
December 19, 2012
|
Filed in:
Power of Parents
,
Underage Drinking
A study recently published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research shows that teens who drink underage show signs of breakdown in the brain's wiring system.
The brain has two broad types of tissue, known as gray matter and white matter. The gray matter can be seen as the brain's information-processing centers, while the white matter is like the wiring connecting those centers. Using brain scans of 92 teenagers, researchers found that kids who regularly drank showed negative changes in the brain's white matter over 18 months. The impacts of those changes in white matter can prevent parts of the brain from talking to each other as effectively, hurting memory, attention, and mental processing speed.
With regular, repeated, heavy use throughout adolescence and young adulthood, these effects may become more noticeable and consequential. You can read more about the study here.
Fortunately, parents can have a strong influence on whether your teens drink — nearly three out of four kids say their parents are the leading influence on their decisions about drinking. We encourage parents take advantage of the holiday break, to talk with their teens about alcohol. Having intentional and ongoing conversations with your teen about alcohol can be lifesaving, but we also know it can be difficult. That’s why we created Power of Parents®— a research based program that has been shown to reduce underage drinking when you read the parent handbook and talk with your teen about drinking. You can download the parent handbook here.
Winter 2012 MADDvocate
By
MADD
|
December 17, 2012
|
Filed in:
Drunk Driving
,
General
,
Underage Drinking
,
Victim Services
The Winter issue of MADDvocate is available. Read the latest issue of our online magazine that is helping survivors survive.
2011 Drunk Driving Fatalities by State
By
MADD
|
December 13, 2012
|
Filed in:
Drunk Driving
Drunk driving deaths dropped 2.5% nationwide last year, but how did your state do?
| State |
2010 Drunk Driving Deaths |
% of Traffic Deaths in 2010 that were Drunk Driving Related |
2011 Drunk Driving Deaths |
% of Traffic Deaths in 2011 that were Drunk Driving Related |
| |
|
|
|
|
| Alabama |
264 |
31% |
259 |
29% |
| Alaska |
16 |
28% |
21 |
28% |
| Arizona |
206 |
27% |
215 |
26% |
| Arkansas |
178 |
31% |
156 |
28% |
| California |
774 |
28% |
774 |
28% |
| Colorado |
120 |
27% |
161 |
36% |
| Connecticut |
119 |
37% |
92 |
42% |
| Delaware |
37 |
37% |
41 |
41% |
| Dist. of Columbia |
7 |
27% |
8 |
30% |
| Florida |
678 |
28% |
716 |
30% |
| Georgia |
299 |
24% |
277 |
23% |
| Hawaii |
43 |
38% |
44 |
44% |
| Idaho |
72 |
34% |
50 |
30% |
| Illinois |
292 |
32% |
278 |
30% |
| Indiana |
194 |
26% |
207 |
28% |
| Iowa |
85 |
22% |
83 |
23% |
| Kansas |
134 |
31% |
108 |
28% |
| Kentucky |
168 |
22% |
171 |
24% |
| Louisiana |
226 |
31% |
226 |
33% |
| Maine |
40 |
25% |
23 |
17% |
| Maryland |
154 |
31% |
162 |
33% |
| Massachusetts |
122 |
35% |
114 |
34% |
| Michigan |
236 |
25% |
255 |
29% |
| Minnesota |
128 |
31% |
109 |
30% |
| Mississippi |
174 |
27% |
149 |
24% |
| Missouri |
257 |
31% |
258 |
33% |
| Montana |
72 |
38% |
81 |
39% |
| Nebraska |
50 |
26% |
45 |
25% |
| Nevada |
69 |
27% |
70 |
28% |
| New Hampshire |
45 |
35% |
27 |
30% |
| New Jersey |
160 |
29% |
193 |
31% |
| New Mexico |
119 |
34% |
105 |
30% |
| New York |
360 |
30% |
315 |
27% |
| North Carolina |
389 |
29% |
365 |
30% |
| North Dakota |
46 |
44% |
64 |
43% |
| Ohio |
335 |
31% |
316 |
31% |
| Oklahoma |
218 |
33% |
220 |
32% |
| Oregon |
70 |
22% |
97 |
29% |
| Pennsylvania |
424 |
32% |
407 |
32% |
| Puerto Rico |
98 |
29% |
101 |
28% |
| Rhode Island |
27 |
40% |
24 |
37% |
| South Carolina |
353 |
44% |
315 |
38% |
| South Dakota |
37 |
27% |
33 |
29% |
| Tennessee |
288 |
28% |
257 |
27% |
| Texas |
1,270 |
42% |
1,213 |
40% |
| Utah |
46 |
18% |
53 |
22% |
| Vermont |
18 |
25% |
18 |
33% |
| Virginia |
207 |
28% |
224 |
29% |
| Washington |
169 |
37% |
156 |
34% |
| West Virginia |
87 |
27% |
90 |
27% |
| Wisconsin |
203 |
36% |
196 |
34% |
| Wyoming |
53 |
34% |
38 |
28% |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| National |
10,136 |
31% |
9,878 |
31% |
Dateline Holiday Episode
By
Jan Withers
|
December 13, 2012
|
Filed in:
Drunk Driving
,
National President
Words to describe the taping experience for the holiday episode of Dateline NBC are as varied as the subjects on the show. Three groups of people took part in three scenarios. They were everyday folks, under the impression that they were there to rate holiday treats, wines and decorations, which they did. Andrea Canning, the NBC correspondent, gave the participants instructions, and then left the room for about 10 minutes, so they could confer privately on their ratings.
 |
| Jan watches the hidden camera footage with Dateline’s correspondent and producer. |
Among the group were two actors, one of whom was charged with guzzling the wine (his bottle really contained grape juice) and acting drunk.
When Andrea rejoined the group, she invited them to return to their chauffeured vehicles and travel on to another venue where they would do some more sampling and rating. Of course, the actor pretending to be impaired announced he would take his own car.
Participants were surrounded by cameras with Andrea in the room, but after she left, they thought they were “alone.” However, cameras were still watching, hidden in the ice bucket, the lamp, the microwave oven, and at various spots in the parking lot. Would these adults stop this person who was obviously impaired from getting behind the wheel?
I observed with fascination in a side room, listening to their concerns and debates. After each scenario was complete, Andrea would ask them why they made the decisions they did. Then I was invited to join them and share with them my observations and some tips for handling this type of situation in the future.
My own reactions from behind the curtain shocked me. At some points, I was fighting tears of discouragement. Soon thereafter, I was again filled with tears, this time of hope and pride – more precisely, pride in my fellow womankind. The evening was a rollercoaster of emotions. The evening was entertaining. The evening was enlightening. The evening was energizing.
I encourage you to tune in and let me know what you think!
Warmly,
Jan
