Candy Lightner Tragedy

Many people experience tragedy in their lives and tragedy can change someone forever. The change could be a positive change or a negative change depending on the choice of the individual. One woman, Candy Lightner, had three tragedies occur in her life that not only changed her and her family and friends forever but also pushed Candy to make a positive change in this great nation.

Candy Lightner was born in California on May 30, 1946. Her father was in the U.S. Air Force and her mother worked as a civilian for the military. Candy grew up in California and went to college in Sacramento to become a dental assistant. She married a U.S. Air Force officer Steve Lightner and they had three children, one son, Travis and twin girls, Serena and

Cari. Candy and Steve lived a normal, quiet life raising their children and working hard until one day when tragedy struck. Candy was traveling down the highway when a drunk driver rear-ended her and injured her 18 month old daughter, Serena.

Serena survived with minor injuries. But, the drunk driver had minor consequences for his drinking and driving. It was only six years later when a driver impaired by drugs ran over Candy and Steve’s son Travis. Travis was injured severely. He had many broken bones, was in a coma and eventually was left with permanent brain damage. Laws were very weak at the time and the driver received no ticket even though she had no license and was driving impaired. After this tragedy Candy and her husband divorced and she moved to a new town in California where life seemed to be going good for her. But, severe tragedy struck a few years later when the Lightner’s daughter Cari was on her way to a church carnival as she was walking, a drunk driver drove onto the sidewalk, ran over Cari and killed her. The driver drove off and never returned to the accident until later caught by law enforcement. This driver was free on bail from a drunken driving crash which had occurred only two days earlier. In the last four years this was his fifth drunken driving offense. Four days later after Candy realized the driver would probably not receive any jail time for his crime, Candy knew she had to

do something. She wanted to make her child’s needless death make a difference. So while sitting in her house one day she came up with an idea for an organization to help stop these deaths due to drunken drivers. As she was sitting there angry about her daughter’s death so she came up with the idea of MADD (Mother’s Against Drunk Drivers). This organization she created had two goals at the time. “First, Candy wanted to raise the public awareness of driving while under the influence and second, she wanted to create tougher legislation to make driving under the influence a crime.”
Candy had no political experience at the time; she wasn’t even registered to vote. But, she researched and found that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported:
“In the mid 1970’s alcohol was a factor in over 60% of traffic fatalities. Traffic crashes were the leading cause of alcohol related deaths and two thirds of traffic death among persons aged 16-20 involved alcohol. At that time, preventive measures consisted primarily of efforts to reduce harm from alcohol by identifying and treating middle aged individuals convicted of driving under the influence with established or advanced cases of alcoholism.”
Candy knew she had to start somewhere so she began contacting any government official that would listen to her findings, even visiting offices daily until they listened. Her idea was to publicly show pictures of the victims of drunken drivers. This helped people realize that this was a real problem in our country and put a face on the crime.
Government officials started noticing. So, Candy was appointed to a commission on drunk driving in her state of California. She began lobbying across the country and got President Reagan’s attention. The president then appointed her to the national commission on drunk driving in 1984. This commission and Candy Lightner’s organization MADD, pushed for new legislation to be passed that raised the legal drinking age to 21 in all 50 states. Lightner’s research proved to congress that “half of all highway fatalities in the 1970’s involving 18-20 year olds were alcohol related”. Her organization MADD also found that “over 50,000 teenagers had died in drunken driving accidents during that same time. She also pressed for the government to withhold highway funding from states that did not comply with the age requirement of 21. The house passed this bill on June 7, 1984.”
Candy Lightner’s organization MADD has been considered one of the most liked organizations in the last 35 years.

This organization created changes in an area that was greatly needed. Lightner and her organization have done many other things to make our highways safe from drunk drivers and to educate adults and children on the dangers of alcohol. Such as; The MADD organization worked with Anheuser Busch to encourage them to promote responsible drinking, they promoted making public service videos about drinking and driving, they began a red ribbon program to discourage drinking and driving during the holidays by responsible drinkers tying red ribbons to their car antennas and they also promoted raising the legal measure of

intoxication.
Even though Lightener chose to leave the MADD organization she pushed hard to make changes in the United States attitude toward drinking and driving. The tragedies that struck Candy Lightner made a change in her forever. She took this horrible death of her child and turned it around into a positive and productive project. By her getting the legal drinking age changed to 21 . The U.S. department of health and services reports that; “ The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that such laws, now in effect in all states, prevent 1,000 traffic deaths each year.” Candy Lightner has proved to be a woman of change for our nation.