News report noting that deaths caused by poisoning outnumbered deaths related to motor vehicle traffic in 2008, according to a report from the US National Center for Health Statistics (Data Brief No. 81, Dec 2011).

While the rate of injury-related deaths caused by motor vehicle crashes fell by half between 1980 and 2008 (from 22.9 per 100,000 population to 12.5 per 100,000 population), the poisoning rate tripled (from 4.8 per 100,000 population to 13.5 per 100,000 population).  There were 41,000 poisoning deaths in 2008, 9 out of 10 of which were caused by medications or illicit drugs.

Poisonings involving opioid pain medications comprised 40% of all drug-related poisoning deaths in 2008 compared with only 25% in 1999.