Qld road toll: Figures show 1 in 10 fatal crashes caused by drug drivers

Police are investigating whether the drivers involved in three separate crashes that claimed the lives of nine people were affected by drugs at the time.

Drivers police believe were drug-affected have claimed the lives of at least nine Queenslanders in the last month, as authorities say they’re “throwing everything” they’ve got at ridding the state’s roads of drugs.

As the state’s road toll surges past 230 lives lost this year, alarming statistics show that almost one in 10 fatalities were caused by drug-affected drivers.

According to QUT’s Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety Queensland, illicit drugs were a factor in nine per cent of fatal car and motor vehicle crashes.

Assistant Commissioner Ben Marcus. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

Assistant Police Commissioner Ben Marcus said methylamphetamine accounted for 64 per cent of the illicit substances detected in roadside drug tests.

He said random drug tests were the “best weapon” police had to combat drug drivers and bring the state’s road toll down.

“The first thing we do in the morning is check the fatal figures and the last thing at night we do is check the fatal figures,” he said.

“We are absolutely throwing everything we can think of at this problem and trying to reduce it.”

It comes as police are investigating whether drugs played a role in three separate crashes that have killed nine people – including a two-year-old girl – in the past four weeks.

Rani Adams and Kyle Stacey.

Kyle Stacey, his partner Rani Adams and her little girl were killed on September 27 when driver Calvin Clack drove up the wrong side of the Ipswich Motorway hitting their car head on.

Police are investigating whether Clack, who also died at the scene, was affected by drugs after motorists reported seeing him drive erratically in the minutes before the crash.

Two weeks later emergency services were called to a horror crash on the Gold Coast that claimed the lives of Lisa Roggenkamp, 47, Linda Whitby, 48, driver Craig Piper, 50.

Police are investigating if Mr Piper was a registered heroin user and “passed out” shortly before the car veered across Brisbane Rd at Arundel.

Lisa Roggenkamp, 47 and Craig Piper, 50, were two of the three people killed in a crash at Arundel. Picture: Facebook.

Officers this week charged a driver with two counts of dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death while affected by an intoxifying substance after two men died in a moped crash in Morayfield last Friday night.

Police were unable to confirm whether drugs or alcohol played a role, but a court was told the man had a history of driving under the influence of both.

For the families of the victims left behind, the pain of losing a loved one to the hand of a drug-affected driver is still raw.

Laurie Tritton lost his daughter and wife in a crash involving an ice-fuelled driver. Picture: Jamie Hanson

Brisbane father Laurie Tritton says he and his daughter Tarmeka are taking life “day by day” almost four years after a drug-affected driver killed half of his family.

After exchanging gifts on Christmas Day in 2017, Laurie, his wife Karin and their two daughters Makayla and Tarmeka were headed for a family lunch in Brisbane’s east when their car was struck head-on by an ice-fuelled driver.

Makayla and Karin Tritton died in the 2017 Christmas Day car crash. Picture: Living & Loving photography

Karin, 56, and Makayla, 18, were killed and Laurie and Tarmeka were seriously injured.

The driver, Mark Veneris, is eligible to be out of prison for Christmas after serving half of his seven-year sentence behind bars.

Mr Tritton said he and Tarmeka were taking things day by day but any fatal crash “always brings back memories”.

Asked what needed to change to stop drug-affected people driving, Mr Tritton said: “The whole judiciary system”.

“You can go and kill someone and only get 3.5 years (behind bars),” he said.

“He (Veneris) took two lives, he should be in jail for life.”