Nearly 1,000 drivers injured in traffic accidents in 2021 in Andalucía had used drugs

The region has the highest number of accidents caused by drug use in Spain

Europa press

Tuesday, 14 February 2023

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A total of 3,800 drivers - nearly 1,000 of them in Andalucía - involved in traffic accidents in Spain tested positive for drugs in 2021, reported the government earlier this week.

Specifically, 3,360 non-hospitalised injured drivers tested positive for drugs in 2021, while another 440 drivers who were injured and treated at a hospital tested positive for drug use.

According to data from the government, Andalucía is the region with the highest number of traffic accidents where the driver tested positive for drugs with 982 cases. Castilla-La Mancha (548) and Castile and Leon (438) were second and third, respectively. Bottom of the list was Asturias, with 43 injured drivers testing positive for drugs.

The most used substance among these drivers was cannabis (188), cocaine (157) amphetamine or methamphetamine (86), and opiates (59).

Furthermore, 49.4% of drivers who died in accidents in 2021 in Spain had consumed alcohol or other drugs, according to the Report on Toxicological Findings in Fatal Victims of Traffic Accidents published last July. Alcohol (69.8%) was the most common substance detected ahead of cocaine, cannabis, and psychoactive drugs.

This represents a slight increase compared to 2020 figures when, of the 597 drivers subjected to an autopsy, 48.7% (291) tested positive for alcohol or drugs.

The report, prepared by the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences (Intcf), obtains its results from the autopsies of 812 drivers killed in traffic accidents in 2021. Of them, the vast majority, 90.6%, were men, and 9.4% were women. People aged between 45 and 54 years are the most affected.

According to the study, the most common profile of those killed at the wheel is a man aged between 25 and 54, driving a car or a moped, having consumed, alcohol, whose rate, in 75% of the positive cases, was equal to or greater than 1.2g/L.

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