Drugs in race with drinks on the highway

Instances of people driving under the influence of drugs are increasing.

Even as traffic police across the world are trying to tackle the menace of drunkdriving related accidents, there seems to be a new “high” that has hit the roads across the US. According to data of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of US deaths from opioids, including prescription painkillers and heroin, has quadrupled since 1999, with more than 33,000 deaths in 2015.

Back home, India is amongst the leading countries in the world when it comes to deaths due to road accidents. Around 410 people die every day in road traffic accidents in India. Around 1.5 lakh lives were lost in 2016 due to road accidents, and drunk driving was responsible for 40-50 per cent of the accidents. Instances of people driving under the influence of drugs such as opioids are also increasing.

For the first time, the US data claims that drivers killed in crashes were more likely to be on drugs than drunk, with marijuana involved in more than a third of fatal accidents in 2015, a study released in April 2017 said. The study included any substance that can impair driving, including illegal drugs, prescription medications, legal non-medicinal drugs and overthe-counter medicines.

Drivers of heavy vehicles especially resort to these drugs as their work capacity increases with the use of these illicit drugs. Methods to detect their use by the system are still inadequate and they easily escape the police. Our system needs to have better techniques to detect these substances, as their effects are as harmful as alcohol. Sometimes, it is worse.

With respect to drunk driving, while metros like Mumbai and Delhi have increased prosecution of drivers driving under the influence of alcohol by around 10-16 per cent, the death toll is still not declining.

Under the influence of alcohol, the driver’s judgement gets impaired, which is a threat to road safety. Even at low levels of alcohol the probability of accidents increases as the reaction time increases and the driver becomes more risk-taking and aggressive, drives at high speeds and violates traffic rules. Ten to 15 per cent of these drivers suffer from alcohol dependence and require treatment for their dependence syndrome. Not many people take any kind of help.

In India, unfortunately, a significant number of people driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs escape any kind of punishment as the implementation of the laws is not strict, and traffic officials are not equipped with the equipment necessary to detect minimum blood alcohol concentration. There are also many cases where if a driver causes an accident under the influence of alcohol, he/she escapes from the accident site, and by the time they are identified and caught, the blood alcohol level has gone down.

Alcohol and other forms of drugs are available round the clock near highways and their sale is unregulated. Though the recent Supreme Court judgement prohibits the sale of alcohol within a few hundred metres along highways, implementation needs to be strict, we don’t have facilities like trauma centres on highways that could save the lives of people who are victims of drunk driving and lose their lives due to someone else’s mistake.

There are two other important reasons that account for road traffic accidents: People who drive long distances on highways are sometimes sleep deprived. As a result, their judgement is as impaired as when driving under the influence of alcohol. A normal person requires eight hours of sleep daily to ensure he/she drives carefully. The use of mobile phones while driving has, in recent years, emerged as another important factor leading to accidents. Social media addiction and mobile phone addiction are on the rise especially among the youth many of whom take or make calls while driving, putting their safety and that of others at risk.

Drivers are four times at increased risk of a crash if they are driving and talking on the phone. We have recently started experiencing a huge number of patients reporting to us with the complaint of both mobile phone and social media addiction. This is no less than other addictions and also requires treatment.

The road transport sector contributes 4.8 per cent to the country's gross domestic product (GDP). However, India loses 1-3 per cent of GDP due to road accidents, according to a 2007 report of the Road Transport Working Group of the erstwhile Planning Commission for the 11th Five Year Plan.

All the above-cited reasons are important causes of road accidents and lead to a big financial burden on the country. If adequate measures are taken, we can prevent accidents and save thousands of innocent lives.

The writer is a professor of psychiatry at the Grant Government Medical College, Sir JJ Group of Hospitals, Mumbai

METHODS TO DETECT USE OF DRUGS ARE STILL INADEQUATE AND DRIVERS ESCAPE THE POLICE. OUR SYSTEM NEEDS TO HAVE BETTER TECHNIQUES TO DETECT THESE SUBSTANCES