Drugs of abuse and traffic safety

Abstract

In most Western countries, alcohol prevalence in traffic crashes and fatalities has been declining since the early 1980s. This is probably due to successful public health campaigns and vigorous enforcement. In contrast, the number of drug-impaired drivers seems to increase and so is the prevalence of combined alcohol and drug driving. Roadside studies estimate the prevalence of drug-impaired drivers between 1 and 15% [1]. A report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drugs Addiction (EMCDDA), [1] based on different driving studies in Europe, Australia, the USA, and Canada, estimates the prevalence of a combination of drugs and alcohol in the general driving population between 0.3% and 1.3%. These increasing numbers are of concern, since drugged drivers are, like alcohol-impaired drivers, significantly more likely to be culpable for a fatal accident [2, 3].