I commented a few days ago that Chuck Hurley, the CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, had been appointed to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — the federal agency that, among other things, sets safety standards for auto manufacturers. See Ignition Interlocks Coming – as Standard Equipment. And MADD’s latest gimmick they claim will “literally wipe out drunk driving in the United States” is installation of ignition interlock devices — eventually in every car sold in the U.S. See New MADD Goal: All Cars Equipped with Breathalyzers.
So what do you think Mr. Hurley’s first order of business is going to be at NHTSA?
The following is an editorial that appeared yesterday:
Former MADD Chief Will Steer NHTSA Wrong
Detroit, MI. Apr. 17 –The nomination of anti-drinking activist Charles Hurley as head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is an ominous development for both motorists and auto makers.
Hurley, CEO of the public nuisance group Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), may well be the most zealous enemy of individual liberty and the free-market at NHTSA since Joan Claybrook ruled during the Carter Administration….
And drivers can expect a ratcheting up of the low-grade harassment they already endure on a daily basis — in the form of more obnoxious regulations, pullover “safety” checks and very possibly lowered speed limits, ala Claybrook’s 55-mph national limit on federal interstates.
All of this will be imposed on states in the time-honored Washington way: Those that fail to comply will lose vitally needed highway funds.
As the head gauleiter of MADD since March 2005, Hurley the led the group — already considered one of the most unreasonable and totalitarian-minded “special interests” in all of D.C. to even new vistas of reactionary Puritanism.
MADD was started by Candy Lightner, a Fair Oaks, California mother in 1980, after her daughter was killed by a drunken speeder in their quiet suburban neighborhood.
Its original mission — a public campaign to make driving drunk unacceptable — has morphed into a crusade against any consumption of alcohol whatsoever.
The legal standard for “drunk” driving has already been lowered to .08 BAC — a level well below the .10 and up level at which people have actual accidents as opposed to running afoul of “sobriety checkpoints.”
But even that isn’t enough. Under Hurley, MADD has been pushing to have the legal threshold reduced to .04 BAC, which would turn anyone who had a glass of wine over dinner into a “drunk driver” as far as the law was concerned — and subject them to penalties more severe than those applied to many violent felons.
As NHTSA head, expect him to push MADD’s current agenda as far as he can —including mandatory in-car alcohol detectors for everyone, not just those already convicted of DWI. And controversial “sobriety checkpoints” that stop random cars and subject their drivers to Gestapo-like stop and frisks are likely to sprout up in irban and suburban areas across the country…
Expect more DUI roadblocks — and get used to taking a breathalyzer test every time you want to start your car.
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