Collisions involving nitrous oxide

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 23/1297

Version Date: 11/12/2023

The Central Ticket Office and Performance Analysis Department have provided the following information:

Data source:

Force crime recording system – Niche

Force road collision recording system – AccsMap

Data processing:

• Search conducted on Niche crime for offences of supply or PWITS where *nitrous oxide*, *NOS* or *laughing gas* were recorded in the occurrence summary and the offender had been arrested.
• Text searches conducted on Niche (road related only) and AccsMap but no returns for nitrous oxide being used by drivers.
• There are 156 collisions in AccsMap for the time period with ‘impaired by drugs illicit or medicinal’ as one of the contributory factors. To manually review each occurrence enquiry log to see whether nitrous oxide was involved would exceed the appropriate time and costs limit of 18 hours, set out by the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

- How many traffic collisions has there been where nitrous oxide has been involved per year? Please provide data for each year: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023. Please provide as much data for 2023 as possible closest to the current day.

0

- How many of those traffic collisions involving nitrous oxide have resulted in one or more fatalities? Please specify how many for each incident.

0

- How many arrests have been recorded for the illegal sale of nitrous oxide from the start of 2016 to the 8th of November 2023?

4