Drug use leads to traffic accidents

To the editor:
The month of December is National Impaired Driving Prevention Month.
Conservative estimates indicate that 20 percent of crashes in the U.S. are directly related to drugged driving. This accounts for approximately 6,761 deaths, 440,000 injuries and nearly $60 billion in costs each year.
In a recent national survey, results indicated that drugs were present more than seven times as frequently as alcohol among weekend nighttime drivers in the US. This survey revealed 16 percent testing positive for drugs while 2 percent tested at or above the legal limit for alcohol.
Drugged driving continues to pose a danger along the lines of the better-known drunk driving problem. A recent study of seriously injured drivers revealed that 51 percent of the study sample tested positive for illegal drugs, compared to 34 percent who tested positive for alcohol. In 2009, statistics indicated approximately 10.5 million people operated a vehicle under the influence of drugs.
Recent data indicates that young drivers are especially at risk for being impacted by drugged driving as they routinely participate in higher risk behaviors. This data indicates that nearly 28 percent of high school seniors had put themselves at risk by being in a vehicle where the driver had used marijuana or other illicit drugs, or had consumed five or more alcoholic drinks, in the two weeks prior to taking the survey.
In addition, the survey indicates about one in eight or 12.4 percent of high school seniors reported driving after they had used marijuana, while 8.7 percent reported driving after drinking alcohol. Nearly one in four participants also indicated they had recently been a passenger in a car operated by an impaired driver.
For more information and/or data sources, please visit http://stopdruggeddriving.org/.
Respectfully,
PJ Corwin
Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition