Murphy G K
Compunet Clinical Laboratories, Miami Valley Hospital, Dayton, Ohio, USA.
Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 1997 Sep;18(3):295-8. doi: 10.1097/00000433-199709000-00014.
Suicide by means of a motor vehicle occurs more frequently than is generally realized, and may be difficult to prove. Suicide by other means while driving a motor vehicle is far less frequent. Only two cases of suicide by gunshot while driving an automobile have been previously, and recently, reported. The author reports two additional cases of suicide by gunshot while driving a motor vehicle. Each case was a young man who had been suffering from depression; who obtained a firearm apparently for the express purpose of committing suicide; and who shot himself while driving a motor vehicle on an Interstate highway. Contrary to the usual finding in a series of suicides, three of the four cases now reported each left a suicide note or notes. What is apparently a fatal single-vehicle-single-occupant vehicular mishap may in fact be a suicide at the wheel by other means. What is apparently suicide by means of motor vehicle may in fact be an attempt to disguise homicide. Medicolegal offices are urged to routinely perform complete autopsies in fatal single-vehicle-single-occupant vehicular mishaps so that cause and manner of death may be documented without question.
机动车自杀事件的发生频率比人们普遍意识到的要高，且可能难以证明。在驾驶机动车时采用其他方式自杀的情况则要少得多。此前仅有两例在驾驶汽车时开枪自杀的案例被报道，最近又有两例。作者报告了另外两例在驾驶机动车时开枪自杀的案例。每例都是患有抑郁症的年轻男子；显然是为了自杀而获取枪支；并在州际公路上驾驶机动车时开枪自杀。与一系列自杀案例中的常见发现相反，目前报道的四个案例中有三个都留下了遗书。看似致命的单车单人驾乘车辆事故实际上可能是其他方式的驾车自杀。看似通过机动车自杀的情况实际上可能是企图伪装成他杀。敦促法医办公室对致命的单车单人驾乘车辆事故常规进行全面尸检，以便毫无疑问地记录死亡原因和方式。
