People with records of operating vehicles under the influence of drugs would be listed as high-risk drivers and not allowed to renew their license until after undergoing addiction treatment and a stand down period, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday.
The government said that stricter sanctions would be imposed on drug-impaired drivers following a rise in drug-driving citations.
National Police Agency data showed that there were 8,355 cases of drug-driving from November last year to last month, about 4.6 times higher than the same period a year earlier, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯) told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo courtesy of the Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office
To deter drug-driving, the government would propose amendments to the Criminal Code and the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例), Chen said.
As addictive drug use is a criminal act, criminal sanctions would take priority, he said, adding that transportation officials have discussed changes to the Criminal Code with the Ministry of Justice.
He said that the transportation ministry would also work with the Ministry of the Interior to propose amendments to the traffic management act, which regulates high-risk drivers through the license renewal process.
“People with drug-driving records would be flagged. Their driver’s license would not be renewed until after they undergo addiction treatment and wait for a specified period,” Chen said. “Should they drive before receiving the renewed license, they would be punished based on the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act.”
Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) previously said that her ministry would propose that people riding with drug-impaired drivers should be subject to punishment as well, while those with drug-driving records should be banned from obtaining a driver’s license.
Following the introduction of rapid saliva tests for detecting drug residue, 4,725 drug-driving cases were referred to prosecutors from January to last month, three times the number recorded in the same period a year earlier, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said on Wednesday.
Of those cases, 98 percent were due to routine traffic stops, helping prevent potential accidents, the bureau said in a statement.
Among the cases, 3,119 involved methamphetamine, accounting for 70.06 percent of the total, followed by 974 involving ketamine (21.88 percent), 745 involving etomidate (16.73 percent) and 519 involving opioids such as heroin (11.64 percent), it said, with some of the cases involving combinations of drugs.
Meanwhile, 24 people were killed in drunk-driving incidents in January and February, a 71.4 percent increase compared with the same period last year, transportation ministry data showed.
However, drunk-driving deaths decreased by 44.2 percent compared with the same period in 2023, the data showed.
“The data show that we need to improve efforts to prevent drunk-driving incidents and crack down on drunk drivers, which requires collaboration between central and local authorities,” Chen said.
Highways and Road Safety Director-General Wu Tung-ling (吳東凌) said the increase in deaths caused by drunk driving in January and February might be because of Lunar New Year banquets.
“People who knew they were drunk might have not got behind the wheel immediately after the event, but were still over the blood-alcohol limit when they drove the following day,” Wu said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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