The number of drivers killed in car accidents in the Washington region who tested positive for drugs outweighs the national average, according to a newly released study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In D.C., three out of 10 fatally injured drivers — and a quarter in Maryland — tested positive last year for some type of drug, including prescription, over-the-counter and illegal substances.
Nationally, roughly one out of five fatally injured drivers had drugs in their system at the time of their accident, which is a 5 percent increase since 2005. The study showed drugs were present in 16 percent of Virginia drivers killed on the roads in 2009.
Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, says the statistics should serve as a wake-up call.
D.C. and Maryland have a higher rate of testing fatally injured drivers for drugs than the national average. D.C. tested 80 percent of victims, Maryland tested 85 percent and Virginia tested less than half. Nationally, states conducted drug tests on 64 percent of killed drivers.
Jon Katz, a criminal defense lawyer based out of Silver Spring, said most drugged drivers don’t register their impairment as severe.
“Very few people say, ‘Hey I’m going to drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol,’ ” he said. “The person takes drugs and they have somewhere to go — they don’t want to be late for work or a date — and they get behind the wheel because they think they are OK.”
He noted that some people mix medicines or have an unexpected reaction to legal drugs.
“Not all prescription bottles warn people how dangerous a prescription drug is or not,” he said.
In the NHTSA study, testing positive for drugs doesn’t indicate a driver was impaired — or that they even caused the accident.
And the highway safety agency does not provide information regarding the amount of drugs found in victims, or whether the drug was legally prescribed or illicit.
But an earlier NHTSA study sheds some light on the prevalence of illegal drugs in drivers.
The agency tested 5,900 drivers tested at night and on weekends in 2007 and reported 11.3 percent tested positive for illegal drugs, 3.9 percent were positive for medications, and 1.1 percent tested positive for both.
