Proclamation 5849—National Drive for Life Weekend, 1988

Deaths from drunk driving on America's highways occur every hour of every day throughout the year. On average, someone is killed every 22 minutes, 65 people a day. Almost 24,000 people lost their lives last year in crashes involving alcohol.

These are not remote statistics. Two out of every five individuals in the United States will be involved in an alcohol-related crash at some time during their lives. Each of us is therefore a potential victim.

Our risk is greater on weekends, when alcohol consumption is heavier, and greatest on holiday weekends. We must remember, as we celebrate, that alcohol can turn a holiday into a tragedy. The responsibility belongs to each of us to see that this does not happen.

If we can begin with a single step, a single weekend, on which each of us can make a commitment not to drink and drive, it may be that we can demonstrate how individual commitments can produce lifesaving results nationwide. Last year, a coalition headed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving sponsored the first National Drive for Life Day, campaigning for all Americans to pledge not to drink and drive on that day. The success of that first day has prompted calls for an expanded campaign.

The Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 350, has designated the Labor Day weekend beginning on September 3, 1988, as "National Drive for Life Weekend" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of that weekend.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the Labor Day weekend beginning September 3, 1988, as National Drive for Life Weekend. I ask each American to help improve the safety of our highways by pledging not to drink and drive on that weekend. I call upon the Governors of the States, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa, the Mayor of the District of Columbia, and the people of the United States to observe this weekend with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fifth day of August, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirteenth.

RONALD REAGAN