The following description was taken from MUARC: Evaluation of the Roadside Drug Testing Expansion and Roadside Alcohol Testing Enforcement Programs in Victoria
Drink and drug driving continue to be overrepresented in both serious and fatal injury crashes, in Victoria. To address the growing drug driving problem in Victoria, in 2015 the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) funded the Roadside Drug Testing Expansion Program, a program aimed at increasing the capacity of Victoria Police in the detection of drug drivers. The aims of the expansion were two-fold, the first being to train additional Victoria Police members to undertake RDT, the second to increase the annual number of POFTs conducted for drug driving to 100,000 per annum by 2017.
This project aimed to evaluate the road safety impacts of the TAC funded expansion in roadside drug testing in Victoria in 2015. To achieve this, research has focused on: measuring the increase in drug tests delivered; establishing the link between Victoria Police member training to deliver drug testing; establishing the association between measures of drug testing delivery and the presence of drugs and alcohol in fatally and seriously injured vehicle controllers; and, integrating these results into an updated Traffic Enforcement Resource Allocation Model (TERAM) to estimate the road trauma and economic impacts of measured increases in drug testing resulting from the TAC funded program. In addition, further application of the updated TERAM was able to estimate the benefits of further expansion of the drug testing program subsequent to the initial TAC funded increase, as well as estimating the point of diminishing returns for both the drug and alcohol enforcement programs. Finally, to assist with future enforcement and research, days and hours of the week where drugs and alcohol are more likely to be detected in crash involved vehicle controllers were estimated. Based on the results, implications for future drug and alcohol enforcement in Victoria have been identified.