Aurora,CO : Drugs cause more fatal crashes than alcohol in Colorado, Aurora on may, thursday 4th 2017

For the first time, drivers killed in car crashes were more likely to have drugs in their system than alcohol in 2015, according to a statewide report released last week.

The report, from the Governors Highway Safety Association and the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility, said drugs were present in 43 percent of drivers who were tested after being killed in a car crash.

And in Aurora, police say alcohol remains the most-common impairment for local drivers, but drugs are increasingly involved in fatal crashes.

Officer Kevin Deichsel of the Aurora police traffic section said drugs are increasingly involved in fatalities and police are also arresting more people for driving under the influence of drugs, whether it marijuana or prescription drugs.

“It hasn’t just been one specific drug,” he said.

Deichsel said he didn’t have the numbers on drugged-driving arrests or drugged-driving fatalities for Aurora, but anecdotally, he said both are increasing.

Deichsel said he doesn’t think the rate of drivers getting behind the wheel after using drugs is necessarily increasing. Instead, the increased numbers APD is seeing is a product of other factors, including officers being more-adept at spotting signs of drug use by drivers.

“I think it’s a combination of our increased training in the department, noticing impaired drivers specifically for drugs, and the population increase around the metro area,” he said.

Still, the most common impairment police see is alcohol.

“Right now it is, but there is an increase in the drug side of it,” he said.

The report released last week calls on state’s to better-train police to identify and arrest drivers who are on drugs.

“As drunk driving has declined, drugged driving has increased dramatically and many of today’s impaired drivers are combining two or more substances, which has a multiplicative effect on driver impairment,” Ralph. S. Blackman, president and CEO of responsibility.org, said in a statement. “We are pleased to partner with GHSA to fill a critical gap. These training grants will prepare law enforcement to detect drug-impaired drivers and make roads safer for us all.”

Jim Hedlund, a former senior National Highway Traffic Safety Administration official, drafted the report.

“Drugged driving is a complicated issue,” he said in the statement. “The more we can synthesize the latest research and share what’s going on around the country to address drug-impaired driving, the better positioned states will be to prevent it.”


Source :
Drugs cause more fatal crashes than alcohol in Colorado, Aurora