Drugged Driving Surpasses Drunken Driving Among Drivers Killed in Crashes

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April 28th, 2017

Driving while on drugs was associated with more deaths in 2015 than driving with alcohol in one’s system, a new report found. Still, some safety experts caution that drunken driving remains a bigger problem and say that “drugged driving,” as the report refers to it, needs more research.

Positive drug tests were more common than the presence of alcohol among the fatally injured drivers who were tested in 2015, according to the report (PDF) “Drug-impaired Driving,” released Wednesday by the Governors Highway Safety Association and the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility, a nonprofit funded by alcohol distillers.

Of those tested, 43% of motorists who died had drugs in their system, the report said. This number surpassed the 37% of motorists who died who tested positive for alcohol in the same year.