Medications and safe driving

March 2010
for a general audience

Some medicines can have a serious affect on your ability to drive safely, and may even be the cause of a significant number of road deaths.

Driving ability may be affected by prescribed medications, or by those bought “over the counter” from a supermarket or pharmacy. These medications include benzodiazepines (minor tranquillisers), antihistamines and antidepressants.

You will not always be able to predict whether a particular medication will affect your driving. You may not even notice that your driving is affected until you find yourself in a situation where you need to respond quickly and accurately to avoid a crash.

In general, medication is most likely to affect your driving skills, and cause you to have an accident, during the first two weeks you are on the course of medication.

This fact sheet provides an overview of some of the different types of prescription and over-the-counter medications that could affect your ability to drive safely.

View this fact sheet as a web page

Download this fact sheet in a print-friendly format [PDF: 259KB](new window)

To view PDF publications you will need a PDF reader. To download Adobe Acrobat Reader, click on the button below and follow the instructions to install this free software: