Why are vehicle crashes and deaths continuing to rise? Given the pace at which cannabis legalisation and use is growing, we spoke with Dr. Timothy Brown at the University of Iowa College of Engineering, about the impact of cannabis and other drugs on impaired driving.
Key takeaways:
How he got into drug driving research
Antihistamine research in the 90s
The risk of using cannabis and driving
Why it’s tough to say how much cannabis makes you impaired
The challenge of prescription meds and driving
Show Notes
With safer vehicle designed driver assistance, technology and mountains of data available from monitoring devices, why is it that vehicle crashes and deaths continue to rise?
With the decades of research, public awareness and marketing that has happened around the world with regards to impaired driving, there's data to suggest that 45 to 50% of all fatal crashes involve a driver under the influence of one or more substances.
“When we look at drugs, people may not be aware or perceive that they've got a negative performance impact on their driving… they just are unaware of the fact that they are impaired, they think that they've got it and they express a level of confidence.”
Given the pace at which cannabis legalisation and use is growing, we spoke with Dr. Timothy Brown, research scientist and director of drug driving research at the University of Iowa College of Engineering, about the impact of cannabis and other drugs on impaired driving.
He shares how he became involved in drug driving research, the groundbreaking antihistamine research in the 90s, why it’s complicated to say how much cannabis makes you impaired, at what point does a drug require a driving study from the FDA for approval, and why we aren’t identifying impaired driving as a significant contributor to the upward trends in crash statistics.
“If we can't document what the problem is, then people believe there's not a problem. That’s the challenge. Distraction wasn't an issue until we started getting stats that showed that there were concerns [about] an increase in folks who were using their cell phones and getting involved in crashes.”
To find out more about how we can keep our roads safer, download and listen today.
On today’s podcast:
- How he got into drug driving research
- Antihistamine research in the 90s
- The risk of using cannabis and driving
- Why it’s tough to say how much cannabis makes you impaired
- The challenge of prescription meds and driving
Links:
What is Global Road Safety?
Welcome to Global Road Safety, a podcast exploring the issues, trends, and innovations in driver safety worldwide. More than 2.5 million people are involved in crashes each year, a number that continues to rise as drivers become more distracted behind the wheel.
Featuring interviews with safety experts and leaders, Global Road Safety is an initiative to reduce crashes and save lives — across every continent. The Global Road Safety podcast is produced by Smith System, the leader in advanced driver safety training.
For more information, visit http://www.drivedifferent.com