The percentage of car crashes that were drug related for each county surrounding Butler County is shown. These figures are from 2018 Pennsylvania Department of Transportation data.

Sparked by a new national report on drugged driving, PennDOT's District 10 investigated similar statistics within its own five counties.

Jamie Arehart, the district's community relations coordinator, found that Butler County saw a slight dip in drug-related crashes in 2018, the department's most recent available data set.

In 2018, 3 percent of about 1,900 recorded crashes in Butler County were drug-related, or a total of about 54 crashes.

Arehart found that 2018 brought about a 0.5 percent decrease in drugged driving-related crashes compared to 2017 in Butler County. The same was true of Clarion County, but not the rest of the district.

“While Butler and Clarion counties saw decreases in drug-related or drugged driver crashes, Armstrong, Indiana and Jefferson counties saw increases, some of them significant,” Arehart said.

Armstrong County saw a 6 percent increase in drug-related crashes to total 5 percent of all its crashes. Indiana County saw an 11 percent increase to 4.2 percent of all its crashes. Jefferson County saw a 2.3 percent increase to 2.7 percent of all its crashes.

Arehart said her office was publicizing their data in the wake of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study published last week.

That study found that in 2018, 12 million U.S. residents ages 16 and older drove under the influence of marijuana, and that another 2.3 million drove under the influence of some other illegal drug.

The age group that most reported driving while high on marijuana was ages 21 to 25.

State Police Troop D, which covers and is based in Butler County, saw 409 DUI-related crashes in 2018, but does not differentiate between drugged and drunken crashes in its data reporting. The troop saw the fourth highest DUI total in the state.

PennDOT advises abstaining from driving when under the influence of any kind of impairing substance, including legal drugs such as sleep medication or some prescription drugs, as one can still receive a DUI charge or add to the crash statistics.

State police advise drivers to plan a ride home when impaired, be it using a sober friend, a ridesharing app or tax service.