Following nearly three decades of progress on the alcohol-crash problem, safety advocates, policy-makers, legislators and enforcement agencies have begun to express greater concern about the use of drugs by drivers. Although the misuse of drugs has long been considered a major social problem, the acute and devastating consequences of driving while under the influence of drugs has only recently come to the forefront as a public safety issue. The primary purpose of this paper was to examine data on the results of toxicological examinations of bodily fluid samples collected by coroners/medical examiners from fatally injured drivers across Canada to provide an estimate of the prevalence of drug use by drivers killed in road crashes. A secondary purpose was to examine the characteristics of fatally injured drivers who test positive for drug and/or alcohol use. (Author/publisher)
Abstract