In 2017 the number of fatalities from drunk driving dropped around the country. Still, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) points out that this number has actually increased 35 percent over the past five years. With the end of the year, from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve, being the time when most fatalities are seen, the organization is now joining forces with Waymo to make sure there is not more of the same this year.
Waymo is the autonomous vehicle division of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. Currently they are trying to launch a fully driverless service in many American cities in 2019. For the time being though, Waymo and MADD are just trying to combat the drunk driving problem seen throughout the holidays.
In doing so, they will be asking drivers to ‘tie one on for safety’. To do so, a driver simply has to place a red magnetic ribbon on their vehicle. The hope for the initiative is to remind people that they must always drive safely, and that includes not getting behind the wheel after having too many holiday cocktails.
For their part, Waymo will be placing the red ribbons on all of their autonomous vehicles in Phoenix and the Bay Area. These are two of the biggest markets where self-driving cars are currently being tested.
The partnership between MADD and Waymo is nothing new. In fact, MADD has been working with Waymo for over a decade, ever since Waymo was better known as the Google Car Project. The fact that driverless vehicles can be safer, particularly when they are carrying inebriated passengers that would otherwise drive themselves, is something MADD wants to make the public more aware of. The hope is that the red ribbons will increase that awareness.
“Increasing public awareness, and reminding holiday party-goers of the options they have for a safe ride home, is always a great idea to enhance public safety,” says DUI lawyer Matthew Wilson of Price Benowitz LLP. “Waymo and MADD should both be applauded for this new initiative. It is particularly important around the holidays, when the number of fatalities from drunk driving does skyrocket when compared with the rest of the year.”
Never trust MADD around an alcohol statistic. Show me where you get a 35% increase from these NHTSA impaired driving death numbers for the five years preceding 2017: 2012 (10,322); 2013 (10,076); 2014 (9,967); 2015 (10,265); 2016 (10,497) and 2017 (10,874). If you take the lowest year of the five as a denominator and 907 as the numerator (difference high to low) you get a 9% increase.