MADD to 'Tie One On For Safety' With Law Enforcement Across the State This Holiday Season to Remind Public to Drive Safe, Sober and Buckled Up

Ribbon Shows Public Support for MADD's Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving; Over 74,000 arrests for DWI were made in North Carolina in 2008

North Carolina Ranks 5th in the Country for Alcohol Related Traffic Deaths

RALEIGH, N.C., Nov. 23, 2009; The following is being released by MADD:

What: Media Event where the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) of North Carolina will kick-off its annual Tie One On For Safety holiday ribbon project by holding a ceremony at State Farm Insurance in Raleigh. Representatives from the branches of law enforcement will join MADD in tying a ribbon on an antennae of a car on display and will also display our huge 20 foot ribbon, which will be located in different locations throughout the State over the holiday season. MADD will also use this event to celebrate the lives that will be saved, which includes a 19.8% reduction in drunk driving deaths in 2008.

MADD's Tie One On For Safety project urges motorists to tie a MADD red ribbon to a visible location on their vehicles, or to place a window cling on their vehicle windows, as a pledge to drive safe and sober and wear their seat belts, and reminds others to do the same. MADD has plans to distribute these ribbons across the State in over 500 locations, including every State Farm Insurance office within North Carolina.

This year Tie One On For Safety celebrates 21 years of lifesaving awareness with a chance for the public and city leaders to join MADD's Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving. MADD, through its Campaign, calls for intensive, high-visibility law enforcement efforts like sobriety checkpoints; advocates that all convicted drunk drivers have an alcohol ignition interlock installed on their vehicles; supports the research of transparent, vehicle-based technologies that will prevent a drunk driver from driving drunk; and mobilizes grassroots support for all of these efforts, led by MADD.

When: November 24th, 11 a.m.

Where: State Farm Insurance Office - 9630 Falls of the Nuese Road, Raleigh, NC Suite 115

Who: MADD State Director, local law enforcement (Sheriff, Raleigh Police, Highway Patrol, Governors Highway Safety, ALE and tentatively the Governor Beverly Perdue.)

Why: The holidays are among the deadliest times on the road. There are nearly 13,000 drunk driving fatalities annually. Another half a million are injured each year in alcohol-related traffic crashes. Nationally, from Thanksgiving to New Year's in 2008, there were over 1,000 drunk driving fatalities, and over 2,000 fatalities involving a drunk driver and/or someone in the crash was unbelted. Means to separate drunk drivers from their weapons--their vehicles--with the use of current alcohol ignition interlock technology are rarely being used despite the fact that nearly 1.4 million drunk driving arrests occur annually. MADD's Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving aims to change this.