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.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS