Drug and Driving: A Compendium of Research Studies

Annotated Sources (cont'd)

Sweden

56. Sjögren, H., Björnstig, U., Eriksson, A., Öhman, U., and Solarz, A. (1997)

Drug and alcohol use among injured motor vehicle drivers in Sweden: Prevalence, driver, crash, and injury characteristics. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 21(6): 968-973.

Overview

Study of injured and dead drivers in Sweden

Type of study, population(s) and proportion tested

130 injured drivers who were hospitalized (UHD-Umeå hospitalized drivers) and 111 fatally injured drivers who were autopsied in Sweden

Two regions for fatals: Umeå (UFD- Umeå fatal drivers) and Gothenburg (GFD-Gothenburg fatal drivers)

Time period of May 1991 to December 1993

Drugs examined
Method of testing and medium used

Blood samples in ER or at autopsy

Other dependent variables

Police reports used to obtain crash characteristics

Findings (including statistical methods)

19% of UHDs, 26% of UFDs, and 21% of GFDs tested positive for drugs and/or alcohol

Drugs in 10% UHDs and 7% UFDs (not significantly different)

Alcohol in 13% UHDs, 21% UFDs, and 20% GFDs

Drugs and alcohol in 2% UHDs, 6% UFDs, and 3% GFDs

Benzodiazepines and opiates most common (3 – 8%)

Most common illegal drugs were cannabinoids (4%) and amphetamine (3%) (this is only in UHDs, no info for fatals)

Those with positive BAC were younger and those in combination with drugs crashed between midnight and 6am

Drugs only crashes evenly at different times throughout the day

Those positive for drugs and/or alcohol were involved in more single-vehicle crashes