DETROIT — Six high school girls died in a terrible crash in Oklahoma two years ago. Now, the head of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board wants parents to talk to their kids about the dangers of driving after using pot.
Jennifer Homendy, the chairwoman of her agency, made the call to parents Thursday when the final report on the crash in the small town of Tishomingo on March 22, 2022, between a tiny Chevrolet Spark hatchback and a gravel-hauling semi was made public.
After an investigation by its staff, the board decided that the crash happened because the 16-year-old driver slowed down for an intersection and then sped through a stop sign. The NTSB report said that this happened because she was probably impaired by recent marijuana use and distracted by having five other teens in the car.
Homendy also said in an interview that the cannabis problem isn’t just with kids. As more states have made marijuana legal for recreational use, teens and adults often don’t realize how dangerous it is to drive while high.
“People think that in states where marijuana is legal, it’s safe and legal to drive while high on marijuana,” she said.
In its report on the crash, the NTSB cited studies that show marijuana makes it harder to coordinate your movements, respond quickly, and judge time and distance, all of which are important skills for driving.
A report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says that people 21 and older can legally use marijuana for fun in 24 states plus Washington, D.C. Oklahoma doesn’t let people use it for fun, but like most states, it’s allowed for medical reasons. In all 50 states and Washington, D.C., it is illegal to drive while high on marijuana.
The NTSB looks into transportation accidents but doesn’t have any regulatory power. On Thursday, they sent out a safety alert asking parents to talk to their teen drivers about how marijuana can make them less safe behind the wheel and how they can make smart decisions to avoid driving or riding with people who are impaired.
Homendy said that states that have allowed pot aren’t doing enough to let people know that it’s against the law to drive while high. She said that more than half of Americans live in states where they can legally use weed for fun.
He said, “Unfortunately, I think that state laws that legalize marijuana for medical and recreational use have come before they thought or did anything about what they were going to do about traffic safety.” “They do a great job of making it legal, but they are way behind on making roads safer.”
She said that states need to start enforcing rules against driving while high on cannabis and get more information on how legalizing marijuana has changed traffic safety.
“There needs to be enforcement to stop it,” she said.
The NTSB said that there was a study of crashes in Washington state that showed more drivers who were involved in fatal accidents tested positive for marijuana after it became legal.
The accident happened in Tishomingo, which is about 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Oklahoma City. Six high school girls got into a car that was only meant to hold four for lunch, according to the NTSB report.
The driver slowed down to 1 mile per hour (1.6 kilometers per hour) at a crossing but then turned faster and didn’t stop for a sign. She sped up and turned left in front of the gravel truck instead. The truck driver slowed down and turned to miss the Spark, but it hit the driver’s side at about 80 km/h (50 mph). All six teens died from multiple blows to the head.
Tests on blood from the driver showed that it had 95.9 nanograms of THC per milliliter, the NTSB said. This much THC, the main chemical in marijuana, would be found in a living person, the study said. This would mean that the person had probably just used cannabis and was therefore probably still feeling its strong, mind-altering effects.
The NTSB did warn, though, that body cavity blood samples can be tainted by other body fluids or by THC from organs like the lungs that may have high concentrations.
At the scene of the accident, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol also found vaping mouthpieces and weed buds in the car, the report said.
In the report, the NTSB suggested that the Oklahoma State Department of Education create a drug and alcohol abuse curriculum for local school districts. This curriculum should teach students about the dangers of driving while high on weed. The NTSB said that at the moment, only Massachusetts and Rhode Island have such course standards.
This group of state highway safety officers, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the National Association of State Boards of Education should also be told about the Tishomingo crash and why cannabis information needs to be included in school and driver education courses.
In a statement, the safety group said that driving while high on cannabis is becoming a bigger safety issue, and state highway safety offices are working hard to get rid of all impaired driving.
“We need to start telling kids early on that driving after having smoked, ingested, or inhaled marijuana is dangerous for them and other people,” According to Homendy.
