A new study from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reveals that numerous fatal accidents in the U.S. are directly related to alcohol and drugs consumption. While there’s no surprise that alcohol and drugs hinder your driving ability, the sheer number of fatal accidents involving intoxicated driving is a little unnerving.

In all, more than half of the people killed in car accidents in this country had alcohol or drugs in their system at the time of the accident.

The NHTSA looked at data from 14 states and found that men and people driving at night were most likely to have alcohol or drugs show up on the toxicology screen conducted after the accident. It isn’t clear how much they had in them, or whether it was enough to cause impairment, but there is little doubt that at least some of them, if not most, were impaired.

While we don’t know how concentrated the levels were and can’t definitively say the drugs caused the accident, there’s a pretty good chance they were at least a contributing factor.

57% of 20,150 drivers who were killed from 2005 to 2009 tested positive for at least one drug, including alcohol. Alcohol was the most commonly found substance, followed by marijuana, and prescription stimulants.

Among men, the statistic was 60%. For women, it was less than half. Also, those who crashed at night or on the weekend were more likely to test positive for drugs. Continue reading →