Study links Washington’s, others’ legalized pot with increase in car-crash claims

car-accident-claim

A recent insurance study links increased car crash claims to legalized recreational marijuana in Washington state and elsewhere.

The report by the insurance research group Highway Loss Data Institute says that collision claims in Washington, Oregon, and Colorado went up 2.7 percent in the years since legal recreational marijuana sales began when compared with surrounding states.

Legal sales in Colorado began in January 2014, followed six months later in Washington, and in October 2015 in Oregon.

Some legalization advocates questioned the study’s comparison of claims in rural states such as Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana with the three aforementioned states that have dense population centers, and how that affected the study’s findings.

Researchers accounted for factors such as the number of vehicles on the road in the study and control states, age and gender of drivers, weather, and other aspects.  Neighboring states with similar fluctuations in claims were used for comparison.

Insurance industry groups have been keeping a close watch on claims when auto accidents across the country began to go up in 2013 after more than a decade of steady decline.

Insurance companies found several possible factors, including distracted driving through texting or cellphone use, road construction, and an improved economy that has led to more miles driven, as well as marijuana legalization.

Currently, eight states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational pot for adults.  (AP)

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