Associations of cannabis use with motor vehicle crashes and traffic stops among older drivers: AAA LongROAD study
DOI: 10.1080/15389588.2023.2180736
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Summary
This study investigates the association between self-reported past-year cannabis use and motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) and traffic stops among older drivers (aged 65–79). The research was motivated by the increasing prevalence of cannabis use in this demographic due to legalization trends and concerns that age-related cognitive and physical declines might exacerbate cannabis’s impairing effects on driving performance. While acute cannabis use is known to modestly increase crash risk in the general population, evidence regarding sustained effects in older adults remains limited. The authors conducted a cross-sectional analysis using data from the AAA LongROAD study, a multi-center longitudinal cohort of active drivers. Data were collected during the Year 2 follow-up visit (2017–2019) at four sites: Baltimore, MD; Cooperstown, NY; Denver, CO; and San Diego, CA. The final analytic sample included 2,095 participants who provided complete data on cannabis use, MVCs, and traffic stops within the previous 12 months. Exposure was defined as any cannabis use in the past year. Outcomes were self-reported MVCs and traffic stops (being pulled over by police, regardless of ticketing). Log-binomial regression models were used to calculate adjusted prevalence ratios (aPRs), controlling for study site, sociodemographic factors, mental health symptoms (anger, anxiety, depression), and cognitive impairment. Among the 2,095 participants, 8.88% reported past-year cannabis use. Notably, only 7.5% of these users reported driving within one hour of using cannabis in the past year, and fewer than 0.5% of the total sample reported doing so in the last 30 days. The study found that past-year cannabis users had a significantly higher prevalence of traffic stops compared to non-users (aPR = 1.58; 95% CI: 1.06, 2.35; p = 0.024). An association with MVCs was observed but was not statistically significant (aPR = 1.38; 95% CI: 0.96, 2.00; p = 0.086). The association with traffic stops persisted after adjusting for site, race/ethnicity, marital status, and anger symptoms. Exploratory stratification by self-reported drinking and driving did not reveal significant interaction effects. The findings suggest that past-year cannabis use is associated with increased traffic stops among older drivers, which may indicate impaired driving performance, even if it does not translate into a statistically significant increase in self-reported crashes in this specific sample. The lack of a significant MVC association may be attributed to the low frequency of driving immediately after cannabis use in this cohort, suggesting that older adults may self-regulate their driving behavior more than younger adults. The study highlights the need for further research on the relationship between cannabis-related traffic offenses and crash risk, particularly given the modest correlation between traffic violations and crash risk in general populations. Limitations include the cross-sectional design, reliance on self-report which may be subject to underreporting, and a sample that was predominantly White, affluent, and highly educated, which limits generalizability.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | author_sweep | — | — | 3 | 2026-05-28 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 13 | 2026-08-22 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-08-23 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| enrich | skipped | — | — | — | 3 | 2026-06-04 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.8-27b-gittensor | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-08-23 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 15 | 2026-06-11 |
Summary generated by qwen3.8-27b-gittensor on 2026-08-23; verification: pending re-verification.
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- Empirical Findings: observational prevalence