[Two traffic accidents after heroin consumption with fatal outcome].

Abstract

We report on 2 road accidents where 4 people--drivers and front-seat passengers--were injured so badly that they consequently died. All four had consumed heroin, in addition to which both passengers had also consumed cocaine and dihydrocodeine respectively. The blood samples of one of the drivers was only taken after the onset of intensive medical treatment including infusions and transfusions. Nevertheless the result of the analysis clearly showed that the driving ability had been impaired by heroin. In the remaining cases the opiat concentrations were so high that they could have justified a fatal intoxication in themselves. This applies especially to one of the passengers who displayed an unconjugated morphine blood concentration of 0.96 m/l. However, also in this case at the time of the accident the blood circulation and heartbeat did not stop immediately.