Research to Improve our Understanding of Drug-Impaired Driving
DOT and NHTSA are teaming up with law enforcement and scientists to improve the agency's understanding of drug-impaired driving.
Going forward, NHTSA will:
Examine the operation of new oral fluid screening devices that could be used by law enforcement to screen drivers for drugs in a matter of minutes and
Update its fatality data collection system to get more detailed data on drug-related fatal crashes for calendar year 2018.
NHTSA is working to improve the information in FARS on drug use by drivers. In 2018, small improvements, such as changes to the drug list and allowing more than three drugs to be listed, will be underway. More significant improvements will happen in 2019 and 2020 (e.g., distinguishing between screening tests and confirmatory tests, recording quantity of a drug detected).
