The National Audit Office said it would ask the Cabinet to gather ministries to analyze the issue of driving under the influence of medication and review traffic regulations, as more people were estimated to have died from it than from traffic accidents involving alcohol last year.
More than 300 people die in traffic incidents in which a driver is impaired by medication every year, while 253 people had died in alcohol-related traffic incidents last year, the Taipei Pharmacists Association said.
A Taipei City Hospital survey showed that about one-third of the respondents had taken medicine before driving, with the most common being hypoglycemic agents (to lower blood sugar level), hypnotics and muscle relaxants, the audit office said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Commonly taken medicines often have side effects such as sleepiness, dizziness, reduced concentration and loss of coordination, it said.
Another survey by the association on 300 professional drivers of taxies, tour buses and heavy trucks showed that 19.5 percent had taken hypoglycemic agents, hypnotics or muscle relaxants before driving.
In general, people in Taiwan are unaware of the seriousness of driving under the influence of medication, but the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例) only regulates and punishes driving under the influence of illicit drugs, hallucinogens, narcotics and other similar controlled drugs, the office said.
As the act does not regulate or punish driving under the influence of medication, it might be difficult to increase people’s awareness on its seriousness, it said.
Referencing the drug classification methods in France, the association and Taipei City Hospital have established a traffic safety drug classification system for Taiwan and are using it to raise public awareness.
In Hong Kong, people who drive under the influence of drugs that are not classified as illicit, but deprives them of their normal mental or physical faculties and seriously affects their ability to drive, might be subject to penalties.
They can be fined up to HK$25,000 (US$3,206) or sentenced to three years in prison, Hong Kong’s Road Traffic Ordinance says, adding that first-time offenders would have their driver’s license suspended for six months while it would be at least two years for the second offense.
The dangers of driving under the influence of medication is no less than that of alcohol or illicit drugs, but most people are unaware of it, which poses road safety risks, the office said.
The office said it has notified the Executive Yuan, asking it to gather the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the Ministry of Health and Welfare to reference the road safety drug classification systems in other countries and improve the driving under the influence of medication prevention and control mechanism in Taiwan.
They can also use the National Health Insurance data to analyze the medicines that endanger driving safety, raise public awareness through hospitals and clinics, and review the traffic regulations and relevant penalties, it said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
RSS