Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater Mothers Against Drunk Driving National Youth Summit on Under Age Drinking

Rodney E. Slater, United States Secretary of Transportation
May 13, 1997

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, May 13, 1997
NHTSA 30-97
Contact: Chuck Jackson
Tel. No. (202) 366-9825

REMARKS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY
SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION RODNEY E. SLATER
MOTHERS AGAINST DRUNK DRIVING NATIONAL YOUTH SUMMIT
ON UNDER AGE DRINKING
MAY 12, 1997
CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND

I know some of you came to Washington because a drunk driver killed someone you loved. Or someone you love is an alcoholic, and you're afraid they will kill someone. And so, like it or not, you have to be here.

But let me say this: it is more than love that brought you. It is hurt and anger. You're here at a MADD conference because you are mad, mad enough to say: I will change something in America that I think is wrong.

That is really telling about yourselves. For many of the most significant changes in America have come about because people believe we can be better. It has always been the collective will of we the people that brings about the more perfect union.

Later this week, I will be returning to my alma mater, the University of Arkansas, as the commencement speaker, at the law school, that I entered 20 years ago.

So, yesterday, I looked through a couple of scrapbooks. And do you know that I found some articles and a letter I wrote 20 years ago on why I wanted to become a lawyer?

I said I wanted to find myself as a figure in a dream. We all live in a land that perpetuates democratic ideas and principles. But for many this dream is only a hope and not a certainty.

And I wished that my voice be heard not solely through the casting of a ballot or protest, but in the development and administration of these principles.

My point is this: after you get mad, and protest -- then follow-up. Then act. I want you to see yourself as a figure in a dream, too.

For if the founding mothers of MADD and all the mothers and students who followed hadn't gotten mad enough in the past 16 years to help put in place their dream of a minimum drinking age law, 16,000 Americans would not be alive today.

For if President Johnson 30 years ago hadn't been angry enough to say we need to reduce the slaughter on our highways, and therefore started a Transportation Department; and if lawmakers hadn't enacted laws so Americans buckle up; and if automakers hadn't worked to make cars safer, today we'd be seeing 120,000 deaths a year on our highways. Not the 40,000 we see, which is still far too many.

When President Clinton asked me to become Secretary of Transportation, I was in a position to fulfill that 20-year old dream of mine and develop and administer principles that would make our country better. And I told the American people that my number one priority would be safety.

Safety would be the North Star, which guides me, and ultimately which judges the Department of Transportation family.

And one of my first acts was to ask Congress to increase our budget for highway safety programs. Specifically, I asked for a 25 percent increase, in the next six years, so we can, among other things, expand our aggressive campaign to crack down on drunk and drugged driving.

Let me put this in perspective: in Washington, we are, for the first time in 30 years, going to balance a budget. That means most budgets are being cut, not added to. So asking for 25 percent more money is doing very well.

Then, a little less than a month ago, I went to the White House, joined by about half of all the former Transportation Secretaries, my predecessors.

I set a national goal to increase seat belt use. Today, seven of 10 Americans buckle up, and I want the 21st century driver to wear seat belts.

Airplanes don't take off until everyone is wearing seat belts, so why should we drive cars without buckling up?

I want every state to pass primary seat belt laws, where an officer can stop a driver or passenger for no other reason than they aren't buckled.

Clearly these laws work. States with them have, on average, increased their seat belt use rates 15 percentage points.

When I call your state, will you stand up and keep standing -- California, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and the District of Columbia. These teenagers live in states that already have primary seat belt laws. I wish all of you were standing. For I want every state to have them. Is everyone with me on that? Thank you.

I have also spent time on an issue that is of growing concern to our nation -- aggressive drivers. When you see cars driving twice the speed limits, and tailgating, and cutting in front of trucks, and running red lights -- you wonder: who do these people think they are?

We want to be as aggressive as the aggressive drivers. So two weeks ago, I met with law enforcement officers to crack down on aggressive drivers in this area. I hope you do the same with your local police.

And there's more for us -- you and I -- to do on impaired driving. Thanks to you -- thanks to the actions of teenagers reaching millions of other teenagers -- we are doing an awful lot better than when I was a teenager.

But this is a pretty large room. And if I filled four rooms, with this many young people, that is how many youth we lose a year, because of drunk driving.

So, yes, there's more to do -- for teenagers and adults. We have set a very ambitious goal of reducing alcohol-related fatalities from 17,000 today to 11,000 by the year 2005.

One strategy to get there is to have all states set their illegal blood alcohol limit to .08. I know this is a very important goal for MADD.

Another strategy I share with MADD is zero-tolerance for drivers under the age of 21 -- for all of you. In 1995, when fewer than half the states had zero tolerance laws, President Clinton called on Congress to enact legislation making it the law of the land. They did.

We need driving laws consistent with drinking laws. Since it's illegal in every state for young people to buy alcoho, it should be illegal to drive with any alcohol.

As a result of the President's efforts, 39 states and the District of Columbia now have zero tolerance laws, and those that do not will lose federal highway funds.

And there is something else MADD and the President believe: we must do more to stop your peers from using drugs and driving. For two-thirds of teenagers -- your friends -- say they personally know someone who has driven a car after using marijuana or another drug.

Drug use among teenagers is very troubling to the President, because you are our future. The President called on General McCaffrey and I, and some of the other agencies in the Cabinet, to see what more we can do.

We want to experiment with the concept of drug testing in a few states for new drivers' license applicants and in post-crash situations. For example, a state may be interested in a voluntary testing program, for which participants get insurance discounts.

And we want to expand drug prevention and education programs.

This a problem too big for any group, or even any nation to solve. I was with the President last week in Mexico, when our two countries signed a Joint Alliance Against Drugs.

The President pointed out our nation has less than five percent of the world's population, yet we consume about half the drugs. So we need to fight this problem -- every day, every way, and I hope the President and I can count on you to be with us on this.

Let me end on this. You probably have heard about Washington politicians, not always getting along. But when it comes to youth, let me say this: this nation's leaders, always come together.

If you look at the underage drinking laws, it has been a Republican President and a Democratic Congresses, and a Democratic President with a Republican Congress, that came together to pass them.

The week before last, when the President and the Congress struck a deal to balance the budget, they cut a lot of programs. But what was not cut -- was education. Congress said yes to the President's goal of making education America's number priority. And they said yes to extending health insurance to 5 million uninsured children.

And a few weeks ago, in Philadelphia, when President Clinton and Vice President Gore wanted to encourage more volunteerism, so more of us go into schools and mentor at-risk kids -- who was there? Every former President -- Republican and Democrat.

So, when you come up with your platform, and then visit your congressmen, it doesn't matter their party, or your party. What matters are your ideas.

What matters is that you are mad, and that like a Rodney Slater of 20 years ago, you use that energy to place yourself as the figure in a dream to make our country better.

So, tomorrow, tell the members of Congress everything you think they should know.

And, then, send me a copy of your platform. I need to learn, too.

Thank you very much.

Source:  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)