Crashes increase for women

Alcohol-related crashes involving death or injuries among young female drivers more than doubled from 10 years ago, according to a statewide study from the Automobile Club of Southern California released Wednesday in Costa Mesa.

An analysis of drinking and driving data from 1998 to 2007 showed an “enormous” jump of 116% in alcohol-related crashes among women between 21 and 24 years old during that time period while crashes with men behind the wheel increased 39%, club officials said Wednesday during a news conference at the Costa Mesa Neighborhood Community Center.

Statistics like this make the case for increased DUI patrols and alcohol-service training, said Costa Mesa Police Chief Chris Shawkey, who attended the conference.

Costa Mesa regularly leads the county in DUI arrests per capita. Club officials could not provide a local breakdown of statistics in the study.

Costa Mesa and Newport Beach police have joined with the county healthcare agency for alcohol and drug education to create the Alcohol Impaired Driving Task Force of Costa Mesa, which aims to educate and train establishments on how to properly serve alcohol, Shawkey said.

Officers patrol at certain times looking solely for impaired drivers.

While men still lead the totals statewide for alcohol-related crashes when they are driving, a passenger or a pedestrian between the ages of 18 and 24, women have quickly made up ground in the last decade.

“We’re seeing something that is a broad social trend. These increases do not occur among other age groups,” said Steven Bloch, a traffic safety researcher and policy analyst for the Automobile Club of Southern California. Bloch and the club’s researchers investigated female drinking trends after some high-profile arrests among young female celebrities, he said.

“Concerns about those arrests and particularly about how those women are serving as role models for other young women led us to try to investigate what was going on and whether those arrests were isolated incidents...or whether they were part of a broader social trend.”

Statistics show that 18- to 20-year-old women were killed or injured in alcohol-related crashes 15% more than in 1998. Men showed a 6% increase. Among 21- to 24-year-olds, the increase was more dramatic, with a 46% increase for women and an 18% increase for men. Bloch attributed some of the increases to more drivers, but also to the innovation of “sweet drinks,” or flavorful cocktails geared toward women.

“We’d all like to believe that we’re moving toward a more egalitarian society, but unfortunately the drinking and driving trend isn’t the kind of equality we’d hoped for,” he said.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.