MEDIA ENQUIRIES 01924 562 252

CADD'S AIMS

To continually raise awareness of the lethal dangers of drinking or taking drugs and driving and to seek justice for the families of those killed or injured by drink or drug drivers.

To campaign with our partner agencies for lower limits for drink driving in the UK and to lobby parliament into bringing about new, more effective laws against drink driving.

PREVENTION RATHER THAN CURE

CADD was set up to highlight the dangers of drunken and irresponsible drivers.

Over 40 years ago, John Knight and Graham Buxton suffered the loss of children in road crashes caused by drunken drivers. They found little support to help them through their traumatic experience and very little activity to do anything about the waste of life on our roads and so founded CADD in May 1985.

Its message was that not nearly enough was being done to prevent other people becoming the innocent victims of drinking drivers and that existing policies and penalties in relation to drinking drivers, especially those who killed or injured others, did not adequately reflect the true nature of the offence.

CADD encouraged victim families to launch private prosecutions on death charges to ensure justice for lost loved ones. Every prosecution launched was successful, which proved beyond doubt that prosecuting authorities was not bringing proper charges.

The UK Attorney General acknowledged in writing that there was legitimate cause for concern. Soon afterwards a new offence of causing death by careless driving whilst under the influence of alcohol/drugs was introduced with a penalty of a maximum of 5 years imprisonment which, under pressure, were increased to 10 years maximum imprisonment (the maximum has now been increased to 14 years). Minimum compensation payments were doubled and police activity in breathtesting suspects was dramatically increased.

LONG TERM INFLUENCE

Since its inception, CADD has influenced many aspects of drunk driving or driving whilst under the influence of drugs.

CADD established the rights of victims’ families to attend Court hearings and to express their feelings in writing to the Court. CADD also campaigned for a victim’s right to challenge inappropriate sentences by complaining to the Attorney General and Parole Board before killer drivers were released.

The Charity attracted a great deal of public attention in its early days. By the courage of families in speaking out, they made the anti-drink drive message real and relevant and not simply a matter of statistics.

The Charity continues to work closely with the media to increase public awareness through media campaigns and education to the dangers and terrible (sometimes tragic) consequences of drink driving or driving whilst under the influence of drugs.

CADD provided real impetus to these campaigns with the public being confronted by tragic human stories which can be seen in the message of the 15 years “Drinking and Driving Wrecks Lives”.

CADD joined forces with its sister charity, SCARD, and both charities now share offices in Ossett in West Yorkshire. SCARD is a road safety charity offering support to those affected by road death or serious injury