National Safe Driving Week begins with focus on drug impairment

National Safe Driving Week has begun, with the emphasis this year on driving under the influence of drugs, including prescription medications and over-the-counter drugs, in addition to illegal substances.

“Unfortunately, people are more afraid of being caught than being killed,” Jack Smith, president of the Canada Safety Council, which leads the campaign, commented in a statement. “They don’t think it’s going to happen to them until it happens.”

In 2009, 35.3% of fatally injured drivers in Canada tested positive for “impairing drugs,” according to the CSC, citing research from the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse. In the same year, 40.9% of driver fatalities included alcohol as the reason for impairment.

The most common drugs found in fatalities are central nervous system depressants, cannabis, stimulants and narcotics, according to the CSC.

Fatal crashes involving drugs are also more likely than alcohol-involved crashes to occur during the daytime hours on weekdays, it adds.

Among young people (between 15 and 24), more drivers admitted to using cannabis then driving (12.6%) than drinking and driving (10.7%), according to Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse statistics.

Young drivers between 16 and 24 also had a higher percentage of fatalities involving impairment from alcohol or drugs (27.6% and 26.9% respectively) than other groups.

In the 55 and older group, drug use was more common than alcohol use in driver fatalities.

National Safe Driving Week runs until Dec. 7.