From Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/drugs/alcohol-such-huge-factor-car-crash-risks-its-wonder-why-govts-are-so-eager-catch-people-toking
We should spend more time preventing alcohol fatalities.
By Paul Armentano
January 17, 2014
While numerous substances, from prescription medications to illicit drugs, can impair driving performance, alcohol remains far and away the substance that is most likely to increase one’s risk of experiencing a fatal accident behind the wheel.
So concludes the findings of a major new study, entitled “Drugs and Alcohol: Their Relative Crash Risk,” published this week in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
Investigators at the Pacific Research Institute in Maryland and the University of Puerto Rico assessed whether alcohol, licit or illicit drugs, or a combination of substances is most likely to contribute to fatal rash risk. The answer: “[T]he contribution of alcohol to crash risk is much larger than that by other drugs,” researchers concluded.
In fact, even the presence of alcohol in the blood at permissible limits (below 0.08% in the United States) elevated drivers’ risk of accident in a more significant manner than did the presence of barbituates, benzodiazepenes, sleep aids, opiates, amphetamines, cocaine, PCP, or marijuana. The authors wrote, “[O]ur finding that the risk of involvement in a fatal crash at a BAC of 0.05% is significantly higher than that for being positive for drugs other than alcohol.”
As for the crash risk associated with the presence of marijuana, authors determined — much to their surprise — that there existed little association at all. They wrote: “Although drugs other than alcohol do contribute to crash risk, we found that such a contribution depends on the type of drug under consideration. Somewhat unexpected was the finding that although marijuana’s crude OR (odds ratios) indicated a significant contribution to fatal crash risk, once it was adjusted by the presence of alcohol and drivers’ demographics, marijuana’s OR was no longer significant among either sober or drinking drivers.”
Overall, authors concluded, “Alcohol was not only found to be an important contributor to fatal crash risk, … it was associated with fatal crash risk levels significantly higher than those for other drugs. … The much higher crash risk of alcohol compared with that of other drugs suggests that in times of limited resources, efforts to curb drugged driving should not reduce our efforts to pass and implement effective alcohol- elated laws and policies.”
Continue reading at: http://www.alternet.org/drugs/alcohol-such-huge-factor-car-crash-risks-its-wonder-why-govts-are-so-eager-catch-people-toking
