DWI Among Women Jumps 29%

The career of ex-FAA chief Randy Babbitt might be the latest casualty of a drunken-driving arrest, but a new report shows that DWI has an increasingly female face. The number of women arrested on suspicion of DWI shot up 29% between 1998 and 2007—up from making up only 9% of all arrests 30 years ago to 20% by 2004. And as the Washington Post notes, female drunk drivers are older and more educated, but earn less than men who are busted. Perhaps most tellingly, however: They're likely the primary caregivers to children, leading blogger Janine D'Arcy to wonder if "mothering and drinking may be a more common problem than we realize." The summary of the report by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation is here (PDF).