One day after the start of the Holy Week traffic exit operation, the Government’s deputy delegate in A Coruña, María Rivas, recalled the need to be alert to detect “what factors influence that our driving capacity is reduced and that our reflexes fall at the wheel” ensuring that “the use of certain medicines is one of them”.
The subdelegate has made this reflection in the presentation of an initiative of the Official College of Pharmacists of A Coruña entitled “Do not lose control, your medication can affect your driving” consisting of the dissemination of videos on social networks to show the lethal consequences that the use of medicines such as antihistamines or antidepressants can have in driving.
María Rivas has highlighted the government’s constant concern to reduce accidents on the roads and has assured “that all insistence is little when it comes to saving human lives.” In this regard, he recalled that last year there were 42 deaths on provincial roads and stressed that the efforts of the Government through campaigns of the DGT and Civil Guard are focused on drastically reducing the number of victims.
Regarding the campaign of the College of Pharmacists, he assured that “from the Government we want to support and reinforce those campaigns that affect those same messages in which we are also working to avoid accidents on the roads, such as awareness, prevention and deterrence”.
Thanks to this initiative of the COFC, the pharmacies of the city will pay special attention to sensitizing patients to the contraindication of driving when using drugs that carry the pictogram of a triangle with red tassel and vehicle in the container.
According to some studies carried out by the College of Pharmacists, between 5% and 10% of traffic accidents are related to the use of medicines; 25% of medicines can have side effects that affect driving and 80% of people who take them do not know that their driving ability can be affected by them. Hence the importance of carrying out an information campaign as has been pointed out this week from school.
The main effects of some medications that affect driving include drowsiness, difficulty concentrating, blurred vision, lack of coordination, or fainting.
In addition to the subdelegate of the Government in A Coruña, the presentation also included the provincial head of Traffic, Victoria Gómez; the president of the COFC, Sara Catrain and the deputy lieutenant of the Traffic subsector of A Coruña, Samuel Lago