Drug Driving Preventions in US

Drugged driving continues to be a major public safety problem. Unfortunately, only recently have school and state governments taken steps to ensure that drugged people stay off the road with the same rigor that they prevent drunken people from staying off the road. Here are some of the most important steps towards making sure that the number of drug related traffic fatalities continues to decrease.

Drugged driving prevention starts with the right data. The more information that can be collected about how often drugged driving takes place, which is most likely to engage in drugged driving, and where people frequently take drugs and drive the better that law enforcement can prevent drugged driving. This information can also be used to target the geographic areas and demographic age groups that are the highest risk of drugged driving accidents.

The law regarding drugged driving usually lags far behind drunk driving in most states. States should institute harsher penalties for drugged driving to reinforce the seriousness of the offence. Additionally, states should train and support law enforcement to better identify drugged driving. With the proper laws in place and a strong police force available to enforce it,

Perhaps the most importation way to prevent drugged driving is by increasing the quality of education on the subject. While there has been considerable effort to educated beginning drivers and the broader public on drunk driving, there needs to be better understanding about the risk of drugged driving as well. With more people privy to the risk factors, fewer people will knowingly engage in such risky behavior.

One of the reasons that drugged driving prevention and laws have lagged behind drunk driving laws is that it is much harder to detect the presence of drugs in a person’s system. While the presence of alcohol can be easily detected with a breathalyzer, detecting the presence of drugs currently relies on low-tech methods such as field sobriety tests. With a better system of detecting drugged drivers in place, law enforcement will be much more effective in detecting and prosecuting drugged driving violators.