{"id":126661,"date":"2018-05-31T00:18:19","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T04:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=126661"},"modified":"2018-05-31T02:07:28","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T06:07:28","slug":"drug-use-linked-to-growing-number-of-fatal-car-crashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2018\/05\/drug-use-linked-to-growing-number-of-fatal-car-crashes\/","title":{"rendered":"Drug Use Linked to Growing Number of Fatal Car Crashes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The differences between drunk driving laws and those involving drugs reveals concerning problems.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cDrug Driving is Drunk Driving,\u201d or so declares the electronic road signs found along many Michigan roads in recent months.<\/p>\n

In recent decades, authorities have aggressively cracked down on drinking and driving, but a new study by the Governors Highway Safety Association warns that a new danger may be facing travelers: rising use of opioids and marijuana, often in combinations that include alcohol.<\/p>\n

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News You Can Trust!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Where tests were performed, 44% of drivers fatally injured in a crash tested positive for drugs in 2016, up from 28% a decade earlier. Of those who tested positive for drugs in the latest study, 38% had used marijuana, 16% had used some form of opioid, and 4% tested positive for a combination of both.<\/p>\n

Those figures may understate the potential problem, according to the GHSA, because the majority of drivers killed in crashes don\u2019t undergo drug tests. But when they do, they\u2019re often found to have been using alcohol, as well, according to Dr. Jim Hedlund, the author of the GHSA report and a former senior official with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.<\/p>\n

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More about the causes of traffic fatalities.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a result of inconsistent testing, said Hedlund, \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to understand the full scope of the drugged driving problem.\u201d But he stressed that, \u201cDrugs can impair, and drug-impaired drivers can crash.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report raises serious concerns at a time when the U.S. is facing an epidemic of opioid usage and as more and more states legalize marijuana for medical and recreational usage. But the authors were also raised several caution flags. Just as it is considered safe and legal to drink a modest amount of alcohol before driving, Hedlund added that, \u201cDrivers who are drug-positive may not necessarily be impaired.\u201d And it is unclear how often the use of drugs actually contributed to fatal crashes.<\/p>\n

What is known is that alcohol continues to be a problem. Not that many decades ago, it was linked to as much as half of all fatal car crashes in the U.S., It was still considered a primary factor in 28% of traffic fatalities in 2016. Now, \u201cwe have to think about the combination of substances drivers are often putting into their systems at the same time,\u201d said Ralph Blackman, president and CEO of Responsibility.org, a Virginia-based non-profit focused on drunk driving.<\/p>\n

Drug driving is not a uniquely American phenomenon. Belgian authorities last December reported that three-quarters of the country\u2019s motorists who admitted using drugs while driving had also used alcohol. And at a Madrid seminar this month sponsored by the European Transport Safety Council, Spanish authorities reported that 12% of that country\u2019s motorists had admitted driving under the influence of drugs at some point. Overall, drug driving was estimated to be responsible for as much as 8% of driver fatalities in the European Union.<\/p>\n

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Drunk driving and drugs go hand-in-hand more and more often.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\u201cAdding to these concerns is the frequency of poly-drug use, or the use of multiple potentially-impairing substances simultaneously,\u201d the GHSA noted in a summary of its new drug driving study. \u201cIn 2016, 51% of drug-positive fatally-injured drivers were found positive for two or more drugs. Alcohol is often in the mix as well: 49% of drivers killed in crashes who tested positive for alcohol in 2016 also tested positive for drugs.<\/p>\n

The organization is calling for a number of steps to address the potential drug driving problem:<\/p>\n