Hello! It’s been a long time but I have been hard at work conducting research at UConn. (Go HUSKIES!!) 😀 🐺 I am excited to share not one, but TWO of my recently published articles focused on research of substance-involved driving. The results of both studies prove interesting given the recent changes in cannabis legislation and especially impactful to injury prevention efforts focused on reducing impaired driving in Connecticut.

1) Linked Crash and Toxicology Data Reveal More About Driver Behaviors

The first paper, “Integrating Crash and Fluids Toxicology Data to Examine Injury Outcomes and Associated Driver Behaviors”, was co-authored with Jennifer Pawelzik and Caroline Scholz and is published in Accident Analysis & Prevention. This paper merges crash records with toxicology data (blood, urine, etc.) for both surviving and deceased drivers in Connecticut to dig deeper into how substances and driving behavior combine to influence injury risk. Models of estimated odds ratios revealed not wearing a seat belt as the most potent predictor of serious injury among drivers tested for substances – boosting odds by nearly 20x. 👀 Other key factors include speeding 🏎️💨 and testing positive for alcohol, cannabis, or other drugs. 💊🍷 Interestingly, driver error (running red light, following too closely) presented as a weaker predictor (reduce odds of injury), likely due to confounding or overlaps with stronger predictors. We conclude that linking crash and toxicology data is powerful and underused, and that substance-use dynamics deserve more nuanced investigation.

• Article link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2025.108200

2) What Cannabis Users Think and Why It Matters

The second paper, “Driving Under the Influence of Cannabis: What Users Think and Why It Matters”, was co-authored with Viviana C. Zambrano Rodriguez, PhD and is published in TRF: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour. This mixed methods study dives deep into how cannabis users view the drug’s impact on driving, and how those perceptions map into actual driving habits and opinions of traffic safety messaging. Responses are stratified across age, frequency of use, and frequency of driving after cannabis use. Results of a survey and qualitative analyses reveal striking opinions: frequent cannabis users do not view driving after recent cannabis use as dangerous and do so routinely; frequent cannabis users do not trust police 🚔 can determine impairment from cannabis. Additional opinions center around three constructs: legal consequences for cannabis-involved driving, sobriety testing, and traffic safety message effectiveness. Based on the results, we provide suggestions for injury prevention and transportation specialists hoping to deter cannabis-involved driving including, design messaging for different user populations (consumption method, freq., etc.), include realistic use case scenarios and update the public on anti-impaired driving efforts in the state, and provide funding opportunities and training 💰to police departments for advanced cannabis detection.

• Article link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2025.103337