A new report by the Road Safety Authority has found that 30% of fatalities in road crashes in Ireland the driver had taken prescription medicine.
The report shows that prescribed sedatives are nearly as common as alcohol in road deaths.
109 coroners’ reports from 2013 were examined in the study. It found that 31% of the people who died in road crashes that year had taken alcohol, 30% had taken prescription medication, and toxicology reports also revealed that 20% had taken illegal drugs.