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Overdoses on the Road: Drugged Driving Rises as a Menace
By: Associated Press
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Police and rescue crews say drivers overdosing on heroin and other drugs are driving up the number of car crashes.
Authorities say people with addictions don’t like to wait to get high, so they often shoot up in the car as soon as they get their hands on drugs. Often they’re back on the road before the overdose takes hold and they lose consciousness, creating potential disasters.
Overdose crashes have become so common that some rescue crews immediately administer the opioid antidote naloxone to any unresponsive driver they find at an accident scene.
Kennard Skaggs is a national representative of the International Association of EMTs and Paramedics. He says that the depth of the epidemic is horrifying, and that overdose crashes aren’t abating.