Serena Lightner

A drunk driver rear-ended Candace Lightner’s car when her daughter Serena was 18 months old. The crash injured Serena.

Travis Lightner

Six years later an impaired driver ran over her son Travis. He had many broken bones and other injuries was in a coma and had permanent brain damage. The driver who injured him was impaired by tranquilizers when she ran over him. She also had no license. Yet she got no ticket.

Cari Lightner

On May 3, 1980, Candace Lightner’s 13-year-old daughter, Cari, was walking in her quiet neighborhood in Fair Oaks, California. She was on her way to a church carnival.

Then a drunken driver struck her from behind. He briefly passed out, came to, and drove off after having killed Cari. The crash threw Cari’s body 125 feet and so badly mutilated her body that her organs were not donatable.

A repeat DWI offender committed the crime. He was free on bail for a hit-and-run drunken driving crash only two days earlier. Killing Cari was his fifth offense in four years.

MADD BEGINNING

Candace Lightner started MADD in her home on May 7, 1980. It was four days after Cari’s tragedy and a day after Cari’s funeral. Candace Lightner’s insightful approach was to put human faces on the victims of drunk drivers. Statistics stopped being simply a collection of numbers. Instead, each number represented a real person. The persuasive logic and emotional impact of Lightner’s message led to a great change in public attitudes toward DWI’s.

Lightner’s efforts led to President Reagan appointing a Blue Ribbon Commission on Drunk and Drugged Driving in 1982. Soon, over 400 drunk driving laws were passed across the country.

MADD National is located in Texas. MADD became Lightner’s life as she struggled to overcome her grief. Because she moved with her son to Texas, MADD relocated its national headquarters.