Drugged driving has become a serious risk on roads throughout the United States, and drivers impaired by marijuana and other drugs are contributing to a substantial number of fatal accidents, as well as causing many accidents that result in serious injury.
If you or someone you love is hurt or killed in a collision with a drugged driver, New York City motor vehicle accident attorneys can assist you in taking appropriate legal action to recover compensation for your losses.
As drugged driving has become a big concern due to increasing drug use, advocacy groups like the Governors’ Highway Safety Association have begun putting forth plans to try to reduce the dangers that drugged driving causes for motorists. GHSA has now issued a new report that calls on states to take certain recommended actions. Hopefully, GHSA’s report will be helpful to states throughout the U.S., including New York state, so drugged driving collisions can be more effectively prevented nationwide.
A Look at the GHSA’s Recommendations for Fighting Drugged Driving
GHSA indicates that drug-testing revealed that 43 percent of fatally-injured drivers involved in deadly motor vehicle accidents had drugs in their systems. This means there were a higher percentage of drugged divers than of drunk drivers.
Because of the prevalence of drugged drivers, GHSA produced its report called Drug Impaired Driving: A Guide for States. The Guide was prepared with help from the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibly and it includes recent information on the involvement of drugged drivers in motor vehicle collisions.
The report also makes specific recommendations for combatting the problem. The most fundamental steps that states should take involve making certain that law enforcement officers have appropriate training so they can identify drugged drivers and make timely arrests of those motorists. To help states accomplish this goal, Responsibility.org is providing grant funding for training to be used by states so the states can implement the training programs that they need to fight drugged driving.
A total of five states will be receiving grants of $100,000 this year as part of this program. This is a follow-up on a successful effort last year in which four states received funding. The states who receive the grants will use them to implement Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) programs and Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE). There was a total of 16 states that applied for the grants, which shows a strong demand among states for funding to fight the problem of drugged drivers increasingly causing collisions to occur.
New York is not one of the states that received a grant this time, but drugged driving is a problem in New York and still must be addressed in order for motorists to be safe from harm. If drugged driving accidents do occur, victims of these tragic collisions must know their rights so they can pursue appropriate legal action to obtain compensation. New York motor vehicle accident attorneys can help, so contact an attorney as soon as possible following an auto accident to begin the process of making a claim for monetary damages caused by the crash. Reach out to Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff & Wolff today for help with your case.