MADD Partners With Uber To Fight DWI

It’s Alcohol Awareness Month, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) have launched a new campaign with Uber for April to highlight the dangers of impaired driving.

Beginning this April, New Jerseyans and viewers across the country will see video advertisements on social media and online platforms, encouraging them to hire a designated Uber driver instead of getting behind the wheel while impaired.

“Since the beginning, Uber has been committed to helping people make responsible choices, especially when it comes to preventing impaired driving,” said Kristin Smith, Head of Road Safety Policy at Uber. 

“We’ve seen the impact firsthand, and independent research shows that Uber helps save hundreds of lives each year. That’s a powerful reminder of why this work matters and motivates us to keep pushing toward a future without impaired driving.”

Since 1980, MADD has collected data on drunk driving and advocating against it to reduce the number of deaths and injuries caused by intoxicated drivers. 

According to MADD, 37 people are killed and 1,075 are injured in drunk driving crashes every day in the U.S. However, MADD has reportedly cut drunk driving deaths by 40%, saving nearly 475,000 lives and supporting around 1 million victims.

One of MADD’s longtime partners and current National Ambassadors is Steven Benvenisti, Esq. 

He was left in a coma for two weeks after a drunk driver hit him on March 20, 1989. The driver crashed into his legs, head, face, and torso at over 50 mph, sending his body flying 70 ft and putting him in the deepest possible coma. Benvenisti was a 21-year-old college student at the time. 

Miraculously, Benvenisti woke up from his coma after almost two weeks. The crash left him with severe bodily injuries and irreparable brain damage. However, he achieved a full recovery after 15 surgeries and five months in the hospital. 

Since then, Benvenisti has made it his life’s mission to warn others about the dangers of impaired driving, speaking at New Jersey high schools and supporting those affected by it such as drivers as a personal injury attorney.

Though Benvenisti has been a partner of MADD for 36 years, he is saddened to see how people continue to get behind the wheel while impaired.

“What’s heartbreaking is that for years, I’d be sharing with student audiences how many people we lose in our country every year to drunk driving, and the numbers keep going up,” said Benvenisti. “And then, for a while, I was sharing that we, in this country, are losing ten thousand people every single year to drunk driving, to impaired driving.”

Sadly, according to Benvenisti, the numbers have only risen.

Even though people throughout the country now use Uber, he claims that 13,000 people die from drunk driving every year. In New Jersey alone, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that 26% of all vehicular deaths in 2022 were caused by impaired driving.

These disturbing statistics has only made MADD’s message more imperative. Their hope is that their partnership with Uber will encourage more people to hire one of the latter’s 7 million drivers rather than pay for a ride with their lives.

Uber has agreed to match donations of up to $25,000 made to MADD throughout April to double the impact of each contribution to the organization’s goals. Meanwhile, MADD plans to support law enforcement officials as they continue to set up checkpoints and arrest impaired drivers to prevent any more deaths and injuries. 

All in all, MADD and Uber urge people to plan ahead, choose not to drive a vehicle while under the influence, and to acknowledge how much good they can do by hiring an Uber driver.
“If you had been one of the those people who, when alcohol was involved or when there was an impaired substance involved, and instead of getting behind the wheel of a car, you decided to take an Uber to get home, you should feel good because you’re not potentially saving your life, but you’re potentially saving other lives as well,” said Benvenisti.