Reducing Impaired Driving Fatalities

Abstract

Investigation of associations between marijuana law changes and marijuana-involved fatal traffic crashes: a state-level analysis.

Marijuana Is Not the Only Cause of Drugged Driving

“…To the Editor In their Invited Commentary, Rosekind et al wisely called for more data to guide action on our drugged driving problems. The authors recommended more crash risk studies such as the ones that were so instrumental in dealing with drunk driving.…”

“…Problems conducting such studies today are evident in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 2015 study referenced by Rosekind et al Although the study was well controlled, several factors may have affected the results. The study could not detect a statistically significant effect on crash risk for any drug other than alcohol; tested persons were restricted to volunteers; innocent victims were combined in the study pool (413 of the 3095 volunteers); only 15 fatal crashes were examined in the study pool; and the study locale was a place where drug use rate was two-thirds of the national norm…”

Marijuana Is Not the Only Cause of Drugged Driving—Reply

“…In Reply In response to our Invited Commentary, Wood points out that marijuana is just 1 of many potentially impairing drugs and acknowledges the need for more data on drug use by drivers, raising a number of points concerning the difficulties in generating and using such data. Driver drug use can encompass legal/prescription medications, over-the-counter medicines, and illegal drugs.…”

“…The 2016 Drug and Alcohol Crash Risk Study referenced in our Invited Commentary contributed important data to the research on drug-impaired driving but had limitations like any study. It is imperative that we build on the foundation provided by this and other studies with future case-control study designs that focus on the most serious crashes, include samples from locations across the nation, and are capable of accumulating sufficient cases to detect drugs with low prevalence rates.…”