Citation

Kelley-Baker T, Añnrve V, Smith RC, Dunn NJ. AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. Washington, D.C.: AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, 2019.

Affiliation

AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety

Copyright

(Copyright 2019, AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety)

The full document is available online.

Abstract

Impaired driving continues to be a significant source of injury, death and financial burden on society. Alcohol-impaired driving alone accounted for nearly 11,000 traffic deaths in 2017 (NCSA, 2018). Drugs other than alcohol are also believed to play a substantial role in crashes, injuries and deaths. However, the magnitude of their role is less well understood due to data limitations stemming from a number of barriers to the collection and analysis of this information. Drug testing requires complex, expensive equipment which is not as readily available as breathalyzer equipment used for alcohol impairment testing. Furthermore, even when drivers are tested for drugs, the quality of the information about the kinds of tests performed and the results of those tests is often inadequate for meaningful analysis. But gathering data on impairment from substances besides alcohol is critical to understanding their role in motor vehicle crashes and developing effect countermeasures to prevent injuries and deaths. One possible solution is to develop a sentinel surveillance system. Sentinel surveillance systems facilitate our understanding of potential public health concerns by monitoring threats through the compilation and processing of high quality data from a network of prearranged reporting sites (Nsubuga, et al., 2006). The objectives of the project reported here were to: (1) identify existing sources of data that can be used to monitor and identify trends in drugs used by drivers involved in crashes on an ongoing basis; (2) establish mechanisms to access and use those data for research purposes; and, (3) to assess the feasibility of developing a sentinel surveillance system to monitor the involvement of non-alcohol drugs in motor vehicle crashes.

Keywords: Cannabis impaired driving; ethanol impaired driving; DUID