Drug use involved in 25% of fatal crashes, study finds

slimvictor

slimvictor

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Drivers who die in crashes test positive for drugs 25% of the time, a new study finds.

Researchers examined data on more than 44,000 drivers in single-vehicle crashes who died between 1999 and 2009. They found that 24.9% tested positive for drugs and 37% had blood alcohol levels in excess of .08, the legal limit. Fifty-eight percent had no alcohol in their systems; 5% had less than .08. The data were from a government database on traffic fatalities.

Study co-authors Eduardo Romano and Robert Voas of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Calverton, Md., say their study is one of the first to show the prevalence of drug use among fatally injured drivers. Among drivers who tested positive for drugs, 22% were positive for marijuana, 22% for stimulants and 9% for narcotics.

The study also examined interaction between alcohol and drugs in fatal crashes. Researchers found no evidence that combining drugs and alcohol produced greater impairment.

"When a driver is drunk, it doesn't matter what drugs are in their system. The alcohol takes over," Romano says.

cont at
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health...in-25-of-fatal-crashes-study-finds/48740704/1
 
How did they test for the drugs? Cause you know, drug tests don't typically test current intoxication.
 
^they compiled medical examiner data, and medical examiners simply tested for the presence or absence of non-alcohol drugs

full text

surprisingly, people who tested positive for weed had a greater tendency to die speeding than people who tested positive for other drugs
 
How can they be sure the person was high at the time of the accident though? Especially with pot. Can't they only definitively conclude that 22% of the victims had smoked sometime in the weeks leading up to the accident? A few years ago I had a really bad wreck on a Tuesday and it was a worker's comp thing so I got tested and came up positive for weed, opiates, benzos, meth, coke and ecstasy because of my weekend activities. I wasn't high when I had the wreck though and ended up getting that job back since I wasn't under the influence at the time. Anyway, am I reading the statistics the wrong way?
 
onthenodintulsa said:
A few years ago I had a really bad wreck on a Tuesday and it was a worker's comp thing so I got tested and came up positive for weed, opiates, benzos, meth, coke and ecstasy because of my weekend activities.
Click to expand...

that's it? No PCP or barbiturates or quaaludes or chloroform?
 
Maybe 25% of the population drive with traces of drugs in their system? Wouldn't surprise me.
 
ummm weed alone and alchohol alone are not so bad, together though, driving gets real hard
 
So you're cool with driving while intoxicated with either, just not both?


Don't fucking drive at all if you're impaired.
 
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