Drugs in reported road fatalities in Great Britain, data to 2021: summary
Updated 28 September 2023
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/developing-drug-driving-statistics/drugs-in-reported-road-fatalities-in-great-britain-data-to-2021-summary
About this report
This report provides a high-level summary of the latest statistics on levels of drugs in road fatalities, based on the more detailed data presented in the accompanying detailed report. As data on driver drug testing is not yet available within road casualty statistics, this analysis is largely based on data obtained from toxicology information provided by coroners. Unless stated otherwise, figures for deceased drivers refer to those driving or riding motor vehicles.
The department is continuing to explore the feasibility of producing statistics on drug-driving and there are several caveats and limitations which should be noted, as set out in more detail in the detailed feasibility report. Any feedback on the content or presentation of this report is welcome to help in the ongoing development of these statistics.
Contributory factors
When a police officer attends the scene of a collision, they can allocated up to 6 factors that they believe contributed to it. Factors include ‘impaired by alcohol’ and ‘impaired by drugs’ - which includes prescription drugs as well as illicit drugs. While there are limitations to contributory factor data, and it is likely that some factors are under-reported within STATS19, they provide a high-level overview of trends in drink and drug drive collisions.
Contributory factor data shows a broad increase in the number of fatal collisions in which a police officer believed ‘impaired by drugs’ contributed to the collision.
It should be noted that the total number of fatal collisions was lower in 2020 and 2021, years which were impacted by lockdowns following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chart 1 shows that while the number of collisions with ‘impaired by alcohol’ remains higher than the number with ‘impaired by drugs’, the gap has narrowed compared to 2014.
Data for all contributory factors can be found in data table RAS0701 and more information on use and limitations in the contributory factors guide.
Chart 1: Number of fatal collisions in which contributory factors impaired by alcohol or drugs were allocated, Great Britain: 2014 to 2021
Deceased drivers with alcohol or drugs detected
For motor vehicle drivers and riders killed in road collisions, toxicology information from coroners allows levels of alcohol and other drugs in the body to be estimated, where toxicology is taken and the report is available. As noted in our feasibility analysis and accompanying technical report produced by the Transport Research Laboratory, there are several caveats in interpreting this data, which should be done with caution, particularly for drugs. For example:
- drugs found in the body may have been administered by paramedics at the scene, rather than taken by the road user prior to the collision
- there are limitations about how or when drugs are taken from blood or urine and the time they stay in the body after death
However, Chart 2 shows the proportion of all deceased drivers, and those where toxicology information was available, that had any alcohol or drugs present, as a broad illustration of trends over time.
It is possible that the presence of alcohol or drugs are more likely to be tested for in cases where use is suspected. If this is so the percentage of drivers tested where drugs or alcohol have been detected may be on the high side. The percentage of those with drugs or alcohol detected as a percentage of all deceased drivers (including those where no report has been provided) will be on low side as there will potentially be some drivers where drugs or alcohol would have been detected had a report had been provided. The true figure, therefore, is likely to be between the two.
In 2021, drugs were detected in 20% of all deceased drivers, and 34% of those for which toxicology information was available. This compares to 11% and 20% respectively in 2014. It should be noted that this covers all types of drugs, not just illegal ones, and it is not possible to assess the extent of impairment on driving (which in many cases is likely to be low).
Alcohol was detected in between 18% of all deceased drivers and 30% of those tested in 2021, compared to between 17% and 30% in 2014.
This suggests presence of drugs in driver fatalities may have increased relative to drink-driving over time, broadly in line with the contributory factor data.
Chart 2: Percentage of deceased drivers with any alcohol or any drugs detected, Great Britain 2014 to 2021
Chart 3 shows trends over time. The number of deceased drivers in fatal collisions with drugs detected has increased by over 60% between 2014 and 2021. While this could reflect changes to testing, the increase is broadly in line with that for the ‘impaired by drugs’ contributory factor recorded in STATS19.
It should be noted that these patterns will be affected by the number of fatalities as well as the availablity of toxicology reports in each year, as well as trends in drugs detected within deceased drivers.
In 2021, a majority of drivers where drugs were detected had illegal drugs in their body (128), followed by query drugs (52) and prescribed drugs (19). Query drugs are those which may have been administered medically following a collision, but which also can be abused. Further details are available in the detailed report.
Chart 3: Deceased drivers with drugs detected, by type of drug, Great Britain: 2014 to 2021
Levels of drugs detected
Chart 4 shows that combining data from 2014 to 2021, there were no drugs reported for 77% of deceased drivers.
The number of drivers that had some drugs present but less than the drug-drive limit was 11%.
Only 1% of drivers were over the drug-drive limit but under twice the limit, yet 11% were more than twice over the drug-drive limit. This may reflect the nature of the testing done, and the way that the drug-driving limits are set for illegal drugs with a zero-tolerance approach. It should also be noted that the drug-drive limits do not apply to fatalities; they have been used here as guide but the caveats referenced above should be kept in mind.
Chart 4: Levels of drugs detected in deceased drivers, Great Britain from 2014 to 2021
Type of drugs detected by age of driver
For the period 2014 to 2021, more drugs were detected in deceased drivers in their 30s than any other age group.
Illegal drugs were found mainly in deceased drivers aged 20 to 39. Medicinal drugs were found mainly in drivers aged 30 and over. Only in drivers aged 70 or more were medicinal drugs detected more than in illegal drugs although the numbers of both are very small in this age group.
Details of which drugs are included in each category are available in the detailed report.
Chart 5: Type of drug detected, by age group, Great Britain from 2014 to 2021
Individual drugs detected in deceased drivers
Of the drugs specified in the drug-drive legislation, there were 15 detected in deceased drivers between 2014 and 2021.
The 5 most frequently detected were cocaine, benzoylecgonine (a cocaine metabolite), cannabis, morphine and ketamine. The latter two drugs can be given as part of medical treatment (as well as potentially being abused) and it is not always possible to determine whether this was the case from the toxicology information provided.
This suggests that cocaine and cannabis are the most common illegal drugs in road fatalities, though caution is required as the behaviour of different drugs in the body after death can vary greatly (for example, cannabis can be detected for some time after use, so that deceased drivers with a positive result for cannabis may not necessarily have consumed it recently prior to the collision; conversely some drugs with short half-lives may not be detected in toxicology testing).
Chart 6: Drugs detected in deceased drivers, Great Britain: 2014 to 2021
Casualties in drug driving collisions
For 2014 to 2021, 64% of casualties in collisions where an impairment drug was detected were fatalities. The percentage of the fatalities that were drivers with drugs detected was 91% showing that most fatalities are drug drivers themselves. Most of the other casualties were passengers of the drug driver.
Chart 7: Casualties in collisions where a deceased driver had drugs detected, by severity, Great Britain from 2014 to 2021
Conclusion and next steps
The production of estimates of drug-driving collisions is in the early stages in Great Britain. As we do not yet have data on the result of drug tests conducted by the police, these estimates are based on toxicology reports of deceased drivers from coroner reports. The latest statistics data are currently for 2021.
While there are a number of caveats which must be kept in mind, we believe that these results are promising in terms of the amount of data captured and the broad comparability with for example data from contributory factors.
We intend to develop further statistics as more data becomes available, including the introduction of a drug test results within the STATS19 collection following the recommendation from the most recent review of STATS19. This would enable us to estimate the overall number of road casualties where one or more driver or rider where over the drug-drive limit for any of the drugs specified in the legislation (in a similar way to what is currently done for drink-drive casualties).
Any comments on the analysis above can be provided via the contact details below.
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