WASHINGTON 鈥� Police, politicians and citizens who launched a concerted effort to toughen drunk driving laws in Maryland got the help of a veteran of the fight: One of the co-founders of MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Cindi Lamb Wiley sat on a bench outside a Maryland Senate committee room, preparing to testify. This wasn鈥檛 a new experience for her. She鈥檇 been here before, as a young, grieving mother.
鈥淢y daughter and I were going to the grocery store on November 10, 1979,鈥� Wiley says. 聽But they never made it to the store. A drunk driver slammed into their pickup truck in on Md. Rt. 26 in Frederick County, shattering both their lives.
Wiley was launched from the truck, smashing through the windshield. Bleeding, and suffering more than 14 broken bones in her lower body, she struggled to understand what happened to her baby girl. 聽Her 5-month-old daughter Laura survived but was left a quadriplegic.
At age 7, she died of complications from her injuries.
Wiley joined forces with another mother, Candace Lightner of California, to form Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, which is now known as Mothers Against Drunk Driving or MADD.
Wiley says in the decades since the crash that ended her daughter鈥檚 life, she鈥檚 been able to forgive the man鈥攁 repeat drunk driver鈥� who struck her car that night.
Preparing to testify in Annapolis last week, Wiley said she got a lump in her throat as she went through a box of photos of her daughter. 鈥淚t never goes away. It never resolves completely. But if just being here today can help pass Noah鈥檚 Law and save a few more lives, I鈥檓 all in.鈥�
Noah鈥檚 Law is a bill that鈥檚 moving through the Maryland House of Delegates. It would require that anyone convicted of drunk driving be required to have an ignition interlock device installed in their car.
There have been several amendments attached to the bill, but supporters say the intent remains intact and that the law has been strengthened. A final vote in the House could come next week. The Senate is considering a similar bill.
In the past, MADD has been criticized for focusing on alcohol of having an almost prohibitionist tone and, in the words of one critic, being 鈥渙verbearing.鈥�
Wiley disagrees with that characterization. 鈥淚鈥檓 a reasonable person,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 like a cold beer on a hot day.鈥� But she says the laws she鈥檚 supporting, like the law to expand the use of ignition interlock devices for those convicted of drunk driving, are reasonable. 鈥淚t seems like a no brainer,鈥� she says.
