superbabydoc
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2001
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The incidence of drugs in drivers killed in Australian road traffic crashes
While this isn't exactly recent data, it has only just been published in 2003. Thought this might prove a sobering read, particularly for those who think it is quite safe to drive on stimulants. I should point out that a number of those deaths would be due to people, such as long distance drivers, trying to use stimulants to allay fatigue. In those cases, the fatigue would be a major contributor.
I wonder how the 6 fatalities with MDMA present might compare to non-driving related MDMA deaths for the same period? I suspect the former would be the greater number.
The incidence of alcohol and drugs in fatally injured drivers were determined in three Australian states; Victoria (VIC), New South Wales (NSW) and Western Australia (WA) for the period of 1990-1999. A total of 3398 driver fatalities were investigated which included 2609 car drivers, 650 motorcyclists and 139 truck drivers.
Alcohol at or over 0.05 g/100ml (%) was present in 29.1% of all drivers. The highest prevalence was in car drivers (30.3%) and the lowest in truckers (8.6%). WA had the highest rate of alcohol presence of the three states (35.8%).
Almost 10% of the cases involved both alcohol and drugs. Drugs (other than alcohol) were present in 26.7% of cases and psychotropic drugs in 23.5%. These drugs comprised cannabis (13.5%), opioids (4.9%), stimulants (4.1%), benzodiazepines (4.1%) and other psychotropic drugs (2.7%). 8.5% of all drivers tested positive for Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and the balance of cannabis positive drivers were positive to only the 11-nor-Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (carboxy-THC) metabolite. The range of THC blood concentrations in drivers was 0.1-228 ng/ml, with a median of 9 ng/ml. Opioids consisted mainly of morphine (n=84), codeine (n=89) and methadone (n=33), while stimulants consisted mainly of methamphetamine (n=51), MDMA (n=6), cocaine (n=5), and the ephedrines (n=61).
The prevalence of drugs increased over the decade, particularly cannabis and opioids, while alcohol decreased. Cannabis had a larger prevalence in motorcyclists (22.2%), whereas stimulants had a much larger presence in truckers (23%).
While this isn't exactly recent data, it has only just been published in 2003. Thought this might prove a sobering read, particularly for those who think it is quite safe to drive on stimulants. I should point out that a number of those deaths would be due to people, such as long distance drivers, trying to use stimulants to allay fatigue. In those cases, the fatigue would be a major contributor.
I wonder how the 6 fatalities with MDMA present might compare to non-driving related MDMA deaths for the same period? I suspect the former would be the greater number.
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