Prescribed drugs linked to 30% of road fatalities

There have been renewed calls on the Department of Health to implement long-awaited laws on prescription drugs after a report showed they were involved in 30% of road fatalities.

Laws clamping down on the trade in prescription medicines — first drawn up in 2013 — were eventually passed in the Oireachtas last July, but the provisions have not yet been commenced.

A report carried out for the Road Safety Authority (RSA), first accessed by RTÉ under the Freedom of Information Act, found that prescription medication was implicated in 30% of 109 fatal road traffic accidents examined in 2013.