Cannabis doubles the risk of fatal crashes
* 11:37 02 December 2005
* NewScientist.com news service
* Gaia Vince
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* BMJ
* Univeristé Claude Bernard, Lyon
* French National Institute for Transport and Safety Research (INRETS)
* Brake
Cannabis almost doubles the risk of fatal car crashes, according to a
new study, though smoking the drug is still far less risky than
drink-driving, the researchers say.
Stoned drivers were almost twice as likely to be involved in a fatal
car crashes than abstemious drivers, according to a study of 10,748
fatal car crashes in France between 2001 and 2003. More than half of
the drivers in the study themselves died as a result of their
accidents and all the subjects were tested for drug and alcohol use
after crashing.
Even after accounting for factors such as the age of the drivers and
the condition of the vehicle, the researchers conclude that cannabis
caused a significant number of the fatalities, with 2.5% of the
crashes directly attributed to cannabis use. Alcohol was the direct
cause of about 29%.
Using cannabis and alcohol together was 16 times more risky than
driving with neither drug in their body.
"You are more likely to be involved in a crash, probably because of
the drug's effect on your reaction times and concentration," says
Jean-Louis Martin who carried out the research at the Univeristé
Claude Bernard in Lyon, France. "But the drug also makes you more
vulnerable to the effects of the crash, so you are more likely to
die." The study did not explore why cannabis smokers fair less well in
a crash.
Young males
The researchers found it was younger drivers, more often male and
driving older cars, mopeds or motorcycles, who were most likely to
have taken cannabis. A total of 681 drivers tested positive for
cannabis (7% of all the drivers in the study), while 2096 drivers
illegal concentrations of alcohol in their bodies (21.4%).
While cannabis is an illegal drug in France, and specific penalties
exist for those who drive while under its influence, the prevalence of
cannabis in the French driving population is 2.9%, similar to that for
alcohol, at 2.7%.
"These shocking results prove beyond doubt the dangers of
drug-driving, and of mixing drink and drugs before getting behind the
wheel," says Mary Williams, chief executive of Brake, the UK's
national road safety charity.
"We need to see the government doing targeted, prime-time TV
advertising on the issue of drug-driving, and we desperately need to
see drink- and drug-driving being discussed with young people as part
of a compulsory health and safety curriculum at school and during
novice driver training," she adds. "We also need to see a national
roll out of roadside drugs-testing by the police to catch drug-drivers
before they kill or injure innocent road users."
Journal reference: British Medical Journal (DOI:
10.1136/bmj.38648.617986.1F)
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8407
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