Fatal crashes caused by drug-impaired drivers increased between 2017 and 2021.
Which the third fatal traffic accident is caused by an intoxicated driver, informs the Accident Information Institute. Institute year 2023 substance abuse report has just been published.
In the years 2017–2021, there were 283 accidents in road traffic caused by an intoxicated motor vehicle driver. A total of 818 fatal traffic accidents occurred in the same years.
In addition, in the same years, 12 fatal accidents caused by intoxicated cyclists and 13 intoxicated pedestrians were investigated.
Among the intoxicants used by drivers, alcohol was still the most common, but every third driver was a mixed user, i.e. had been under the influence of more than one intoxicating substance.
Between 2017 and 2021, 308 people died in motor vehicle accidents caused by drunk drivers.
Of the dead, 244 were intoxicated drivers and 43 were passengers in the vehicles of intoxicated drivers. 21 of the dead were in oncoming vehicles in collisions, including one cyclist.
Drugs fatal crashes caused by drivers under the influence increased between 2017 and 2021.
Of the accidents caused by drivers who drove under the influence of drugs, 39 percent were collisions.
“The share of collisions in drug accidents has increased in recent years. While in 2018 there were two accidents a year, in 2021 there were already thirteen,” the traffic safety manager of the Accident Information Institute, who prepared the substance abuse report Esa Räty states in the announcement.
More than half (63 percent) of the motor vehicle accidents caused by intoxicated drivers were isolated accidents in which no other parties were involved. A good third of them (37 percent) drove together.
Risks taking was typical of drivers who caused an accident while intoxicated.
Of such drivers, fewer than one in three (28 percent) were wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident. The majority (68 percent) were speeding. Almost half of them were speeding, where the speed limit was exceeded by at least 30 kilometers per hour
Every fourth intoxicated driver who caused an accident was driving without a license.
According to Rädy, drug addiction, traffic violations and drunk driving are often found in the backgrounds of intoxicated drivers.
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