Role of alcohol in traffic crashes involving women: passenger car fatalities in northern Sweden.

OBJECTIVE

Since increased alcohol consumption and increased driving among women may lead to a growing mortality due to drunken driving among women, the study analyzed gender differences among traffic fatalities.

METHOD

Traffic fatalities (597 victims, 159 women) in northern Sweden were investigated, using autopsy and police reports, for a 10-year period, 1980-1989.

RESULTS

The incidence of inebriated female driver fatalities was 0.51 per 100 million km (men, 0.66). Eighty-six percent of the female inebriated drivers (98% of men) and 68% of female sober drivers (78% of men) initiated the crash. Blood alcohol was detected in 10% of the women (men, 32%) with a mean blood alcohol concentration of 1.1 g/kg (men, 1.9 g/kg). Of the women, 13% had liver steatosis (men, 28%). The proportion of victims with liver steatosis increased with increasing blood alcohol concentration. Only one case of liver cirrhosis was found (a man). The majority of the inebriated victims were killed from May through October (women, 73%; men, 76%), and from Fridays through Sundays (women, 87%; men, 70%). Only 27% of the inebriated women crashed between 9 PM and 6 AM, compared to 62% of the men. The body location of fatal trauma was similar in men and women and was not influenced by alcohol.

CONCLUSIONS

Female traffic fatalities differ from those of men in several respects. No evidence was found for an increase in the number of women in alcohol-related traffic fatalities in Sweden over the 10-year period studied. Drunken driving and alcohol abuse in traffic is still mainly a male problem.