Drivers who die in Connecticut crashes more likely to have drugs in system

AAA finds rate worse than national average

Last week, a Governors Highway Safety Association analysis of federal data from 2015 showed drugs were found in the systems of 43 percent of fatally injured drivers — more frequently than alcohol.

Using the same National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data, AAA on Wednesday found the rate in Connecticut was even worse. Of the drivers who died in crashes across the state that year, 63 percent had either legal or illegal drugs in their system, according to AAA.

Speaking by phone Monday, Amy Parmenter, spokeswoman for AAA in the greater Hartford area, pointed out that just because a person had drugs in their system doesn’t mean the drugs contributed to the crash. Further, she noted, just because a person died in a crash doesn’t mean he or she caused it.

Still, Parmenter said, the uptick is startling, especially given AAA’s past research into drivers’ feelings about the use of drugs behind the wheel.

In a 2016 AAA poll, a majority of Connecticut motorists said they didn’t consider drivers who use prescription drugs or marijuana behind the wheel a serious threat to their safety. And drivers ages 18 to 29 said they drive after using marijuana more often than they drive drunk.

“AAA has been keenly aware of the drugged driving problem for some time,” Parmenter said in a Wednesday news release.

Indeed, it was AAA that called attention to the issue in January last year, just days after Lawrence + Memorial Hospital treated eight opioid overdoses in a 24-hour period. At least two of those people were found in a vehicle.

“With the report today of an ‘unprecedented’ number of heroin overdoses in New London, AAA, state and local police are warning motorists that users don’t just sit at home,” AAA said at the time. “They drive. And they could be in the car next to you. Or picking up their kids at your child’s school — or at the mall.”

In Connecticut, several entities have been working to combat the issue.

The Statewide Impaired Driving Task Force, which has representation from the transportation, public safety, legal, academic research and nonprofit sectors, meets quarterly.

A collaboration between the state Department of Transportation and the University of Connecticut Transportation Safety Research Center has made Connecticut a leading state in crash data collection. Last year, the partnership won the Governors Highway Safety Association Special Achievement award.

And a November Drugged Driving Summit, sponsored by the state Highway Safety Office and AAA, brought together police officers, prosecutors and public health officials to discuss the difficulty in determining to what extent people’s drug intake has impaired them.

It’s likely, Ohio toxicologist Robert B. Forney said at the summit, that there won’t ever be a measure for marijuana and other drugs that’s as simple as blood-alcohol content is for alcohol. People need only nanograms of many drugs to get high, he explained, and measuring that can be an arduous task.

It’s because of that fact that organizations including AAA advocate for trained Drug Recognition Experts, or DREs, to complement whatever blood tests might reveal.

If a blood test shows a trace of THC, for example, and a trained DRE can confirm someone’s behavior was in line with that of a person who’s high on marijuana, the hope is the combination will be enough to secure a conviction in court.

Connecticut has 31 DREs within its state and local police forces, including some stationed at state police Troop E in Montville and at municipal departments in Waterford, Montville, Norwich and Groton Town. Soon it will have 11 more, as 11 Connecticut officers and eight Rhode Island officers are in the second week of a two-week course at the Police Academy in Meriden.

DREs undergo more than 120 hours of initial training — including up to 60 in the field — so they can recognize impairment in drivers under the influence of drugs other than or in addition to alcohol. DREs also can rule out medical conditions and specify into what category or categories a person’s drug use likely falls.

Funded in part by the greater Hartford AAA, the ongoing training is the second that the state has hosted.

The group’s latest findings, Parmenter said Wednesday, give “every indication that there is much more work to be done moving forward.”