Posted on 02/11/2015 1:56:21 AM PST by CutePuppy
The number of people driving under the influence of alcohol on U.S. roads continues to decline, but the number of drivers using marijuana and prescription drugs that can affect road safety is climbing, according to two studies released by the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
One study found that the number of inebriated drivers has declined by nearly one-third since 2007, but that same survey found a large increase in the number of drivers using marijuana or other illegal drugs. In the 2014 survey, nearly one in four drivers tested positive for at least one drug that could affect safety.
"The latest Roadside Survey raises significant questions about drug use and highway safety. The rising prevalence of marijuana and other drugs is a challenge to everyone who is dedicated to saving lives and reducing crashes," said NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind.
The latest edition of the survey shows that about 8% of drivers during weekend nighttime hours were found to have alcohol in their system, and just over 1% were found with 0.08% or higher breath alcohol content - the legal limit in every state. This is a marked reduction of about 30% from the previous survey in 2007 and 80% from the first survey in 1973.
At the same time, the number of weekend nighttime drivers with evidence of drugs in their system rose from 16.3% in 2007 to 20% in 2014. The number of drivers with marijuana in their system grew by nearly 50%.
A second survey was conducted to determine whether marijuana use increases the risk of crashes. It found that marijuana users are more likely to be involved in accidents, due in part because they are more likely to be in groups at higher risk of crashes such as young men.
"Drivers should never get behind the wheel impaired, and we know that marijuana impairs judgment, reaction times and awareness," said Jeff Michael, NHTSA's associate administrator for research and program development. "These findings highlight the importance of research to better understand how marijuana use affects drivers so states and communities can craft the best safety policies."
DUI / DWI used to mean "alcohol" (and reflected in traffic statistics as such), now they are starting to separate the causes and, not surprisingly, find that marijuana and other drugs are prevalent.
http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/general-statistics/fatalityfacts/state-by-state-overview
There is also a large percentage of motorists under the influence of heavy prescription drug regimens. Some that would put me in a coma. In over 45 years of driving, I can’t recall more distracted and disengaged persons behind the wheel. Electronics and other digital devices aren’t helping much either.
Cars are safer, thus fewer are dying in auto accidents.
Non Sequitur. What correlation, let alone causation, does that meaningless statistic of traffic deaths have to do with DUIs?
"You keep using that statistic. I don't think it means what you think it means."
Yes, Ambien having been one of them prominently in the news lately, but any number of psychotropics could affect alertness.
Hopefully, it seems they are starting to test and classify these cases better, in more detail, so that we may have a clearer picture in a few years, rather than automatic and generic DUI/DWI. Though many might have multiple drugs in their system, some may be shown to be prevalent or primary.
I wouldn’t want to be driving on the same road with someone who, for example, was driving at a .17 BAL but if I knew that the person in the next lane over, in oncoming traffic or at a comfortable distance behind me had smoked some weed with his or her cup of coffee that morning, it wouldn’t bother me as much, especially if I knew that he or she was an experienced and moderate user. However, inexperienced, underage and impressionable drivers who would otherwise be preoccupied with their “buzz” would probably not be the best judge of their own capabilities behind the wheel.
Sequitur. One of the main arguments against legalizing mj was that such laws would lead to deadlier highways. It clearly hasn't happened. The examples I cited make that point.
You are now using tautological fallacy of a different argument to change the subject and ignore the facts in evidence in the article.
"You keep using that statistic. I don't think it means what you think it means."
The number of people driving under the influence of alcohol on U.S. roads continues to decline, but the number of drivers using marijuana and prescription drugs that can affect road safety is climbing...
This will be used in the public debate over marijuana policy and likely influence how legislators act. So yeah, my points are relevant to the topic raised in the article.
Americans don’t have to drink and drive anymore. We’ve got millions of Barry’s illegal aliens to do that for us now.
They were lower in the past. You are interpreting a dip in the "noise" level as a correlation with pot legalization. There hasn't been enough time or enough data to demonstrate such a correlation.
It sound more like you are just part of the "Yay Pot!" Cheerleading squad.
Too soon to assert definite conclusions.
The examples I cited make that point.
No they don't.
“More Using Drugs [Alcohol, Marijuana, Pot]”
Marijuana and Pot combined can be lethal. /s
Really? Please share with us the details of the analysis of statistical (non)significance.
... Or were you just blowing smoke? (No pun intended.)
"At the current time, specific drug concentration levels cannot be reliably equated with a specific degree of driver impairment."
"Alcohol, in comparison, is more predictable. A strong relationship between alcohol concentration and impairment has been established, as has the correlation between alcohol concentration and crash risk."
They were lower in the past.
_________________________________________________________________
NHTSA contradicts you =>
Roadway deaths fall nearly 25 percent in a decade, fatality rates at a historic low
Dec 19, 2014
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) today released the 2013 Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data that shows a 3.1 percent decrease from the previous year and a nearly 25 percent decline in overall highway deaths since 2004. In 2013, 32,719 people died in traffic crashes. The estimated number of people injured in crashes also declined by 2.1 percent.
http://www.nhtsa.gov/About+NHTSA/Press+Releases/2014/traffic-deaths-decline-in-2013
Roadway deaths fall nearly 25 percent in a decade, fatality rates at a historic low
You don't remember that you were talking about Colorado, Washington, and Oregon? Colorado highway deaths were lower in the past.
What does it matter that Highway deaths may have declined in non Legal marijuana states? It has no bearing on the effect of legality in Colorado, regarding which it is too soon to assert any "effect".
As the numbers show, they were wrong. Highways got safer in both legal and non-legal states. The combination of multi-year loosening of pot laws and safer highways, knocks one of the main props out from under the prohibitionist case.
As it should, but there was absolutely nothing about fatalities in the article. You ignored it and went on that tangent, without any facts regarding intersecting data sets.
If you are a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail.
If your mind is set that everything in the world relates / caused only by drug laws, regulations or absence of them, then you will try to prove it no matter whether there is a causation in the data set or you have to create one out the blue.
Just like some people find that everything revolves around "inequity," "racism," "social [in]justice" or some conspiracy theory and will find the "facts" that "prove" it in any unrelated or only tangentially related study.
Trying to reduce everything to a single factor is bad enough, but using it to statistically or logically prove causation when it's not even a part of the data set is ridiculous.
For example, much safer cars, better highways, car-pooling, drive for re-urbanization with higher utilization of public transportation in major cities (reducing, limiting / one-way, or banning passenger car traffic in certain areas) would have a reasonably high degree of correlation with whether the outcome of accident was fatal or not, and can be statistically verified, though fatalities were not a part the above report.
You've had similar idée fixe before, attempting to "prove" correlation / causation of crime statistics in California relative to assumption of "loosened marijuana laws" when there was no causation and when other "non-loosened" states showed similar or better crime reduction statistics :
Cannabis really can trigger paranoia - FR, posts #64, #68, #71, 2014 July 21
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