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Don't dope and drive
04/10/2005 10:58 - (SA)
Paris - A driver who has smoked cannabis is almost twice as likely to cause a fatal accident as one who has not, but alcohol is a far greater menace, a French study reported on Monday.
Cannabis-smokers were 1.8 times more likely to cause an accident than drivers who had not taken the drug, but those who had drunk alcohol were 8.5 times more deadly.
About 2.4% of fatal road accidents, or 170 deaths, could be attributed to cannabis but alcohol was involved in 28.5%, and cost 1 940 lives over the two years of the study.
Even consumption of alcohol within legal limits was responsible for 3.3% of fatal accidents.
But the study found that among young male drivers under 25 cannabis was more likely than alcohol to be the cause of accidents.
The study found that almost three percent of drivers registered positive for cannabis and about the same proportion for alcohol.
The study looked at the analysis of the blood of all drivers involved in fatal accidents between October 1 2001 and September 30 2003 and was commissioned by the health and transport authorities.
- AFP
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