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Patterns of drug use in fatal crashes
Author(s) -
Romano Eduardo,
Pollini Robin A.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0965-2140
DOI - 10.1111/add.12180
Subject(s) - medicine , drug , poison control , injury prevention , driving under the influence , logistic regression , odds , human factors and ergonomics , occupational safety and health , crash , suicide prevention , environmental health , psychiatry , demography , pathology , sociology , computer science , programming language
Aims To characterize drug prevalence among fatally injured drivers, identify significant associations (i.e. day of week, time of day, age, gender), and compare findings with those for alcohol. Design Descriptive and logistic mixed‐model regression analyses of F atality An alysis R eporting S ystem data. Setting US states with drug test results for >80% of fatally injured drivers, 1998–2010. Participants Drivers killed in single‐vehicle crashes on public roads who died at the scene of the crash ( n = 16 942). Measurements Drug test results, blood alcohol concentration ( BAC ), gender, age and day and time of crash. Findings Overall, 45.1% of fatally injured drivers tested positive for alcohol (39.9% BAC ≥ 0.08) and 25.9% for drugs. The most common drugs present were stimulants (7.2%) and cannabinols (7.1%), followed by ‘other’ drugs (4.1%), multiple drugs (4.1%), narcotics (2.1%) and depressants (1.5%). Drug‐involved crashes occurred with relative uniformity throughout the day while alcohol‐involved crashes were more common at night ( P < 0.01). The odds of testing positive for drugs varied depending upon drug class, driver characteristics, time of day and the presence of alcohol. Conclusions Fatal single‐vehicle crashes involving drugs are less common than those involving alcohol and the characteristics of drug‐involved crashes differ, depending upon drug class and whether alcohol is present. Concerns about drug‐impaired driving should not detract from the current law enforcement focus on alcohol‐impaired driving.