Recommendations for toxicological investigation of drug-impaired driving and motor vehicle fatalities.

This report describes the review and update of a set of minimum recommendations for the toxicological investigation of suspected alcohol and drug-impaired driving cases and motor vehicle fatalities involving drugs or alcohol. The recommendations have the goal of ensuring that a consistent set of data regarding the most frequently encountered drugs linked to driving impairment is collected for practical application in the investigation of these cases and to allow epidemiological monitoring and the development of evidence-based public policy on this important public safety issue. The recommendations are based on a survey of practices in US laboratories performing this kind of analysis, consideration of existing epidemiological crash and arrest data and practical considerations of widely available technology platforms in laboratories performing this work.

Recommendations for toxicological investigation of drug impaired driving.

Investigation of a suspected alcohol or drug impaired driving (DUID) case ideally contains several key elements, including a trained officer documenting observations of driving and subject behavior, and collection of a biological specimen for comprehensive toxicology testing. There is currently no common standard of practice among forensic toxicology laboratories in the United States as to which drugs should be tested for, and at what analytical cutoff. Having some uniformity of practice among laboratories would ensure that drugs most frequently associated with driving impairment were consistently evaluated, that appropriate methods were used to screen and confirm the presence of drugs, and that more accurate data were collected on the extent of drug use among drivers.