Alcohol Causes Increases in Fatal Crashes Among Female Drivers
Alcohol and driving has never been a safe mix. Now, alcohol is playing an increasing role in the rising toll of fatal car crashes involving young women drivers in the United States. This research was recently featured in Science Daily.
In 2007, alcohol-related fatal car crashes accounted for nearly a third of the total of all fatal crashes in the Untied States, according to analyzed data from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The research team examined the proportion of drivers whose blood samples had contained alcohol across five age bands, including 16, 17, 18, 19 to 20 and 21 to 24 years. Blood alcohol levels were categorized as 0.01 to 0.07 g/dl, which is below the legal level; 0.08 to .14 g/dl which is at or above the legal level; and 0.15 and above. This final level represents one in which a driver has a 100-fold increased risk of a collision.
During the study period, there were just short of 180,000 fatal car crashes among drivers aged 16 to 24 years of age. Among men in the study group, rates fell year on year by 2.5 crashes per 100,000 population. This decrease continued until the age of 20, where rates remained the same.
For women, rates were much lower than those of their male counterparts, but did not follow the same patterns. Instead, among 16 year old female drivers, the rate fell by 0.8 per 100,000 of the population and remained the same for 17 and 18 eyar olds. The rate increased by 0.7 per 100,000 of the population among 19 year olds and by 0.6 for those aged 21 to 24.
