Nov. 10, 1979 dawned gray and drizzly in Frederick County, one of midautumn's lesser days.

About noon, a woman was driving west on Md. 26, to a grocery store. A man was speeding toward her on the hilly country road. The woman had a baby beside her. The man was drunk. Their two vehicles collided just west of Mount Pleasant.
The crash was one of three in the county resulting in injury that day. It was not one of the year's 20 fatal crashes — eight of which involved alcohol — so it did not seem noteworthy. It did not even rate its own headline in the local paper.
But in its aftermath was born a national organization bent on transforming the way governments, law enforcement and citizens of the United States view drinking and driving.
The woman was Cindi Lamb. The baby was her daughter, Laura. The man was Russell Newcomer.
The organization is MADD.