MOTORISTS TO FACE DRUG-DRIVING TESTS

Survey Claims Drug-drivers Now Outstrip Drink-drivers

A huge rise in the number of drugged-up drivers has prompted the Government
to start official tests to see how illegal substances affect motorists'
performances.

The tests will be carried out after a shock survey claimed the number of
young motorists driving while high on drugs has now outstripped drink-drivers.

Trials are starting at the Government's transport research laboratory in
Berkshire, where drivers' reactions will be tested before and after taking
cannabis.

The announcement follow an RAC study which found that younger people were
twice as likely to have been in a car with a drug-driver than a drink-driver.

RAC Foundation executive director Edmund King said: "The Government has
spent millions on effective campaigns addressing the problems of drink driving.

"Now it is time to highlight the dangers of drugs and driving. It is
alarming that drug-driving is overtaking drink-driving as the biggest
danger on our roads."

The motoring organisation's study comes as Government figures were expected
to show an increase in the number of fatal accidents involving drug takers.

Eleven years ago, just three per cent of road fatalities involved drivers
with drugs in their system - but in 1999 that figure rose to 18 per cent.
The RAC study claims that 800,000 people were driven by motorists under the
influence of cannabis last year.

A further 280,000 had been driven by a motorist on speed and 140,000
passengers had been driven by a motorist on hardcore drugs like heroin and
cocaine.

The Report on Motoring concluded that 10 per cent of 17 to 34-year-olds had
been driven by a drug-driver - compared with four per cent who had been
driven by a drink-driver.

The motoring organisation said up to 350 road fatalities every year were
victims of the growing menace of drug-driving.

Tory Transport spokesman Bernard Jenkin said: "We have campaigned
vigorously against alcohol and driving but the general assumption seems to
be that drugs and driving is not a major problem.

"Drug-driving is becoming a major problem and we need to come up with a
campaign against it."

Although it is illegal to drive while unfit because of drugs, prosecutions
are low because the police currently have no powers to test people at the
roadside.