4/20 “Holiday” Tied to Uptick in Fatal Car Crashes

Marijuana enthusiasts are familiar with April 20, or the shorthand 4/20. It’s an unofficial holiday popularized by High Times magazine in the early 1990s as a way to celebrate marijuana by lighting up in unison at exactly 4:20pm on April 20. But a recent study has linked 4/20 with an increase in fatal car crashes in the United States. Could marijuana really be to blame?

The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, looked at 25 years of data and concluded that people are 12 percent more likely to die in car accidents on April 20 than the week before and the week after. Researchers focused on the number of people who were killed in car crashes between the hours of 4:20pm and 11:59pm on April 20 for 25 years. They then compared these numbers to the same period for April 13 (the week before) and April 27 (the week after).

The results were interesting. In total, 1369 people were killed in accidents on April 20. To compare, 2453 people were killed on April 13 and April 27 combined. That’s 7.1 fatal crashes per hour on April 20 versus 6.4 fatal crashes per hour on April 13 and April 27, and overall a 12% increase in fatal accidents. In the past, researchers found similar correlations linked with alcohol and driving on Super Bowl Sunday.

What risk factors are at play in this study?

Most of the data researchers used didn’t have police data on drug testing, so they couldn’t confirm marijuana use was a contributing factor to the car crashes. April 20 events and festivals are typically targeted to younger people, who likely have less experience driving—think teens or college students. They may not understand the risks of driving under the influence of pot, or may mix marijuana and alcohol at parties and later get behind the wheel.

Risks also differ by region. An article in Newsweek, for example, pointed out that North Dakota showed a higher relative risk of 4/20 fatal accidents than many other states. But this can be explained by North Dakota’s overall low population—a small rise in accidents can skew numbers to make accident risks look higher than normal.

Another interesting finding was that in some states that have legalized marijuana, the fatal crash rate on 4/20 was lower than the control days of 4/13 and 4/27. Researchers theorized that since those states already had a higher level of use to begin with, there was no surge in use on any particular day, including April 20.

Driving after marijuana use

Driving high is a form of impaired driving, just like drunk driving. It can impact a person’s ability to drive by affecting coordination, reaction time, judgment, attention, and decision-making skills. Smoking pot can also decrease eye tracking ability. The ability to make split-second decisions and responses to traffic conditions can be compromised, potentially causing serious or fatal accidents.

The legal team at Larson Law Firm, P.C. is ready to help those injured in car accidents. Our lawyers act with integrity and will fight tenaciously to recover compensation for your injuries. To schedule your free initial consultation with an attorney, call our Minot office at 701-484-4878, or fill out our contact form.