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Drugs and road user fatalities

The HRB is collaborating with the Road Safety Authority and Medical Bureau of Road Safety to examine the presence of drugs among road user fatalities.

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The RSA will reveal preliminary results of this collaborative work at their Academic Lecture on Monday 7 October 2019. 

The HRB collect Road Traffic Collision fatalities data annually on behalf of the RSA from closed Coronial files using the same approach taken to gather drug-related deaths for the National Drug-Related Deaths Index (NDRDI).  

Dr Darrin Morrissey, Chief Executive at the HRB says,

‘This is another great example where the HRB are providing reliable data which is used effectively to increase understanding about an important public health issue, as well as having potential to inform public information campaigns, influence decision making and drive policy change’. 

Speaking at the RSA Academic Lecture, Moyagh Murdock, Chief Executive of the RSA said,

'The analysis of blood and urine samples sent to the MBRS by the Gardaí and presented today, and the analysis of toxicology reports of driver and motorcyclist fatalities from the HRB are starting to give us a clearer understanding of the prevalence of drug driving in Ireland. And it’s concerning, because they confirm that drug driving is a major problem on our roads. We will continue to educate drivers on the dangers of driving under the influence of drugs and work closely with the Gardai to support their enforcement activity. But we will do more to examine the factors around drug driving and examine international best practice to find interventions that can be applied here to tackle drug driving. Today is an important step in this direction'.

For more information you can read the RSA press release.