Research has revealed that 53% of motorists have failed roadside drugs tests since their introduction in March.
According to the exclusive findings unearthed by AutoExpress magazine, 2,038 tests have been carried out at the roadside over the past six months with a staggering 1,080 gleaning positive results.
The biggest offender is cannabis use, present in 854 cases while cocaine was detected in 150 cases. More worrying still, 66 motorists were caught with both cannabis and cocaine in their systems. The worst time period was in the month of June which saw 430 tests being undertaken by the police with a huge 58% of motorists failing the test. To put such figures into perspective, only 5% of motorists failed their breathalyser test last year when stopped for suspected drink-driving.
Drug-driving figures though could actually be higher still as half of England and Wales’ police forces are either not recording their results digitally for public scrutiny yet – or haven’t deployed the drugalyser at all.
For full information about the new drug driving laws, view the video below:
Image © West Midlands Police