A new study by a top automotive safety organization suggests a connection between legalized marijuana and fatal traffic crashes.
The survey by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found fatal crashes involving marijuana more than doubled in Washington after marijuana was legalized for recreational use in late 2012.
AAA found the effect on driving habits was delayed about nine months from the passage of the legislation in December 2012, so the organization compared statistic from 2013 to those from 2014.
AAA found 49 drivers involved in fatal crashes had marijuana in their system in 2013. That number jumped to 106 drivers in 2014, an increase from 8 to 17 percent of all fatal crashes. Some of these drivers also had alcohol or other drugs in their system at the time of the crash.
For comparison, 31 percent of all traffic deaths nationwide in 2014 involved a driver under the influence of alcohol, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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