MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, marked its 30th birthday this week by unveiling a new action plan that calls on Congress to pass legislation to eliminate drunk driving in America through technology.

According to a MADD statement released on Thursday, the pending legislation will fund critical research on new technology to turn cars into the cure for drunk driving. The organization was founded in 1980 by Candice Lightner following the death of her 13-year-old daughter at the hands of a hit-and-run drunk driver. Eight years later, the Carollton, Ky., school bus crash occurred when a wrong-way drunk driver slammed head on into a church bus. The bus fuel tank was punctured and a fire soon engulfed the bus, killing 27 people in the process. The crash not only solidified support for MADD (one of the parents also became MADD president) but lead to new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards on school bus fuel tank integrity and emergency exits.

Over the last three decades, drunk driving deaths have been reduced by about 40 percent. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said this week that drunk-driving related fatalities have fallen by 20 percent from 2006 through 2009 alone. But MADD also says that new government data shows that 10,839 people died from drunk driving crashes last year alone, representing almost one-third of all highway fatalities.

The organization's National President Laura Dean-Mooney said new federal laws would utilize technology to “virtually eliminate drunk driving once and for all.”

One of the bills is The ROADS SAFE Act, an amendment to the Motor Vehicle Safety Act. It would fund research of new technology using non-intrusive alcohol detection systems to determine when a driver is legally impaired at .08 BAC or higher. MADD also is pushing for legislation in the House Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill that would urge more states to pass ignition interlock laws that require convicted drunk drivers to “blow before they go,” using an alcohol detection device to start their vehicle.

Currently, 13 states have enacted ignition interlock laws. Breathalyzer products exist for school buses but have been generally viewed as cost-prohibitive.