The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released new data this week showing that more than half of drivers killed in car accidents in the United States had drugs or alcohol in their systems. And for those who survive, there is often much more at stake than injuries and pain—there are criminal charges.
Researchers looked at fatal accidents in 14 states for the study. They found that men and people driving at night were most likely to have alcohol or drugs in their system following the accident. While they didn’t look to see if the presence of these substances was enough for the driver to be intoxicated or impaired, they could only say the frequency of found substances.
Of course, the NHTSA says more research is needed to determine the prevalence of intoxication at the time of an accident.
“All they really can say is that this is the frequency with which you see drugs in the blood of fatally injured drivers,” said Robert Voss who was involved in the research. “But whether any of the drugs or a particular combination of drugs was causing the crash — their data can’t tell you that.”
The study strictly looked at fatal accidents, not injury accidents or hit and runs.
It’s this kind of data that drives state governments to stiffen the penalties for DWI and similar offenses. They see a study like this and determine alcohol and drugs can cause death on the roads. Subsequently, and with the support of the general public, they increase jail time, fines, and other penalties for driving under the influence.
But, they don’t necessarily do anything to prevent the accidents from happening. The line of reasoning goes something like this: if we make the punishment insanely severe, people won’t do it anymore. But, that simply isn’t true and isn’t supported by research.
What it does do, however, is criminalize more of the population and place a greater burden on the local courts around this country.
If, instead, the focus was on getting help for people who are caught driving under the influence, they might find people less likely to reoffend.
If you are caught driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, we may be able to put you in touch with a local attorney that can help. If you need help kicking a drug habit or simply want to look at the options you have that might save you from jail time, a local criminal defense attorney can assist you.
About David Matson