Opioid Use To Blame In Increasing Number Of Fatal MD Crashes

BALTIMORE, MD — The overall number of opioid-involved fatal crashes has nearly doubled in the past decade across Maryland, a Johns Hopkins study says. In 2006, opioid-involved fatal crashes were 8.3 percent of all crashes; that had increased to 14.1 percent of all fatal crashes statewide by 2017, according to the study led by Johns Hopkins University and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore.

The state had 2,009 opioid-related overdose deaths in 2017, AAA Mid-Atlantic said in a summary of the study. One in ten drivers killed in traffic crashes in Maryland was impaired by opioids during the 11-year period, researchers found. Drivers in the 50 to 54 age bracket who live in rural areas of the state were disproportionately involved in opioid-related roadway crash deaths in Maryland.

By looking at toxicological data from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore, the researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that “fatal opioid-related car crashes in Maryland held steady over the decade,” according to a news release. “The trends in opioid deaths do not follow broader trends in motor vehicle crash deaths; opioid-involved crashes appear to be increasing while overall motor vehicle crashes appear to be decreasing over the same period."

The research team was able to eliminate the cases of trauma victims at accident scenes who were given an opioid for pain control by paramedics and emergency medical service teams. Researchers for the first time pinpointed the remaining subset of mortally injured drivers that had traces of the controlled substance in their bloodstreams prior to dying upon impact or succumbing to their injuries or trauma before paramedics arrived on the scene. Yet the study did not measure the overall risk of opioid-impaired driving.

SEE ALSO: Fentanyl Killing More Marylanders Than Heroin: New Overdose Stats

“Until now, we knew little about the extent of the incidence rate of opioid-involved driver fatalities in Maryland. However, research is warranted to delve into the crash risks that opioid addiction, abuse, use or impairment impose upon traffic safety in Maryland,” said John B. Townsend II, AAA Mid-Atlantic’s manager of public and government affairs, in a news release. “Maryland has not seen a steady increase in fatal crashes caused by drivers impaired by opioids, as previously feared. The rate of opioid-involved traffic fatalities did not keep pace with the rapid increase in overdose deaths involving opioids in state. Yet we must remain vigilant in combatting drug-impaired driving and in ‘ensuring our roadways are safe from impaired drivers.’”

The study (“Geographic Variations and Trends in Opioid-involved Crash Deaths in Maryland: 2006-2017”) was published January 24, 2019 in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention. Researchers detected these numbers across Maryland:

• Opioid involved crash deaths significantly increased in Maryland between 2006 and 2017.
• Baltimore County accounted for 20 percent of all opioid-involved motor vehicle fatalities in Maryland from 2006 and 2017.
• In contrast, Cecil County, which is much less populated, has more cases of opioid-involved motor vehicle fatalities than many surrounding counties.
• Geographic distribution of opioid-involved crash deaths reflect broader patterns of opioid overdose deaths across the state.

The study authors noted a troubling trend of more crash fatalities involving “poly-substance use,” meaning more fatally injured drivers had a combination of opioids and alcohol in their bloodstream, or an mixture of opioids and other drugs in their blood.

“Irrespective of the timing of the deaths, of the drivers testing positive for opioids, 28% had elevated blood alcohol concentrations and 45 percent tested positive for other drugs,” researchers found.

Opioid-related overdose deaths climbed to 1,648 in Maryland during the first nine months of 2018, according to the Maryland Department of Health. That compares to 1,502 such deaths from January to September in 2017, and 1,344 comparable deaths during the same period in 2016.

“Overdose deaths involving fentanyl continue to increase at an alarming pace,” says the Maryland Department of Health.

(For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here. And like Patch on Facebook!)