The profile is that of a male between 25 and 54 years old, driver of a tourist, who had drunk or had used cannabis or cocaine. The consumption of alcohol in deceased drivers has decreased in the last decade, but the intake of drugs has increased by 9 percentage points.
43.4% of the 535 drivers who died during the past year in traffic accidents and subjected to autopsy had consumed alcohol, drugs of abuse and / or psychotropic drugs, according to the report of the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences (INTCF) on the Road Traffic Accident Victims in 2018 that has been filed today.
The report collects the results of the toxicological analyzes performed on 751 fatalities (535 drivers, 143 pedestrians and 73 companions) in traffic accidents in order to determine if they were under the effects of these substances when the accident occurred.
The National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences collects in its memory that of the total of 232 positive cases in deceased drivers, 94.4% are men and 65.7% are in a range of age ranging from 25 to 54 years. . Regarding the vehicles involved, 56.1% of deaths were driven by a car and 31.4% by a motorcycle.
In relation to the presence of substances in toxicological results, the report reveals that alcohol has been the most detected in deceased drivers, since 61.2% of the analyzed cases tested positive (71.1% with a blood alcohol level equal to or greater than 1.2 g / l). In addition, 44% had ingested drugs and 25% psychotropic drugs. The most detected drug was cannabis (59.8%), followed by cocaine (51%). As for the combinations of substances, the most prevalent were alcohol and cocaine (39.1%) and alcohol and cannabis (28.3%).
The comparative study from 2008 to 2018 of the number of drivers killed in accidents with positive results in alcohol registers a progressive downward trend in this decade: it goes from 30.9% in 2008 to 26.5% in 2018. However, , the trend is reversed if we address drug consumption: it increases almost 9 percentage points from 2008 (10.7%) to 2018 (19.1%). More specifically, since 2016 there has been an upward trend in the consumption of cannabis and cocaine.
Regarding pedestrians killed by road accidents in traffic accidents and subjected to autopsy, of the total of 143 cases analyzed by the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences, 55 gave positive results in alcohol, drugs of abuse and / or psychotropic drugs. In 67.3% of the cases it was men and 34.5% of the total had an age over 50 years. Thus, of these 143 cases studied, 45.4% had consumed alcohol, 21.8% drugs and 52.7%, psychotropic drugs. In 80% of pedestrians who died with positive results in alcohol, a blood alcohol level equal to or higher than 1.20 g / L was recorded.
The data included in this report comes from the cases studied in the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences at the request of the judicial bodies for the analysis of the samples sent by the forensic doctors and the different Institutes of Legal Medicine. Although not all traffic accidents with fatalities are analyzed in the institute, there is a sufficiently large and representative sample that allows offering statistically significant results that reflect the national reality.
The general director of Relations with the Administration of Justice, Esmeralda Rasillo, and the director of the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences, Antonio Alonso, were in charge of presenting the Report of the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences on deaths in accidents of traffic in 2018 in an act in which the general director of Traffic, Pere Navarro, also participated; and the road safety coordinator, Bartolomé Vargas.