Chuck Hayes, a retired Oregon State Police officer, figures that at least half of the motorists on the road today are driving impaired and most of them have not touched a drop of alcohol.
Hayes, a drug recognition expert and regional operations coordinator for the International Association of Chiefs of Police, says most of those driving impaired are taking prescription medicine as directed by their doctor.
“People today are taking a lot of medication in order to lead a normal life,” says Hayes. But some of those medicines have side effects the users aren’t aware of or they’re taking a combination of prescription medicines that cause adverse affects such as drowsiness or slowed reaction time.
“As police officers, we have to make the call on if the impairment is caused by a single drug or a combination of drugs. It’s a tough call sometimes,” Hayes says.
But even if motorists are taking prescription medicine as prescribed, it doesn’t excuse them in the event of an accident. “It’s up to the person arrested to prove they’re taking the drugs legally.”
Currently, there is no data to quantify the problem precisely, but police departments across the country say the problem is growing. Most of that is because of an aging baby boomer population who are the biggest users of prescription drugs.
Hayes said a majority of people taking prescription drugs aren’t aware of the potential side effects.
“Either they haven’t read the warnings or their doctor or pharmacist didn’t tell them,” he says. “The numbers are staggering on the people who have been stopped for driving impaired and told officers they didn’t know that taking their prescription medicine would make them drowsy or could slow their reaction time.”
Hayes says more education is needed and many states are moving in that direction by requiring those receiving a prescription to be told precisely what the side effects are.
Now couple that with snow-slick roads and the hazards of the season become especially treacherous. Could a combination of living in the Snow Belt and taking prescription medicine raise your auto insurance rates in the event you have an accident on a snow-covered road?
“Well, that depends,” says Dave Evans, a senior vice president at the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America Inc. in Alexandria, Va. “There’s no single answer to that because every situation is different.”
For someone involved in an auto accident while taking prescription medicine, Evans says insurers focus more on who was at fault.
“Were you issued a citation for the accident? That’s what auto insurers will look at first,” says Evans.
“If the accident was caused by you drifting across the road into a guardrail because you fell asleep, the details in the accident report are going to be most important.” Getting drowsy because of prescription medicine instead of spinning out in the snow because of conditions will be treated differently and will have a different impact on insurance.
The details in the accident report filed by police will ultimately have the most impact with insurers. That’s where the cause of the damage will be detailed.
“If this was a temporary event because of the medicine you’re taking, or if it’s something long-term to control epilepsy, those are going to be viewed differently,” says Evans. “Epilepsy is one of those things that will get you in trouble if you don’t take your medication.”
Michael Barry, spokesperson for the Insurance Information Institute in New York, says prescription drugs don’t usually affect insurance rates or availability.
“If the prescription drugs were prescribed to the driver who got into an accident, an individual’s auto insurance rates would likely not be impacted,” says Barry. “On the other hand, an auto insurer may seek to either raise premiums or non-renew a policyholder who filed an auto insurance claim due to an accident where they were the at-fault driver and the accident could be tied to the use of a prescription drug that shouldn’t have been in their system.”
Barry adds that unlike life insurers, auto insurers rarely assess a prospective policyholder’s medical history during the application process. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s 2007 National Roadside Survey, more than 16 percent of weekend and nighttime drivers tested positive for illegal, prescription, or over-the-counter medication. In a similar report in 2009, 18 percent of drivers in fatal accidents tested positive for at least one drug.
What an auto insurer will look at, says Barry, is the applicant’s driving record, how much the car is used, where the car is parked, where the applicant lives, the applicant’s age and gender, the type of car the applicant drives, the applicant’s credit history and the type and amount of coverage being sought.
Even with statistics from NHTSA showing that drugs – including prescription medicine – contributes to traffic accidents and fatalities, Barry says questions about the use of prescription drugs are not part of the application process.
“If an existing policyholder files a claim, and the auto insurer subsequently learns the policyholder’s claim originated from prescription drug abuse,” says Barry, “the auto insurer is probably within its rights to either cancel the policy (if the drugs were obtained illegally) or non-renew the policy when the current contract period expires.”
