autocide

[ aw-toh-sahyd ]

noun

1. suicide by crashing the vehicle one is driving.

Word History and Origins

Origin of autocide¹

First recorded in 1965–70; auto- ² + -cide

Example Sentences

And yet, his work has an undertone of resilience, if not outright hope, as reflected in his short poem “Autocide”:

From New York Times

Guardrails may prevent the occasional drunk from driving into a ravine, but they obviously don’t stop a significant portion of the population from committing autocide.

From Salon

Though circumstantial evidence is strong, proving that autocide actually does occur has been difficult.

From Time Magazine Archive

Because it cannot be clearly labeled, autocide not only avoids the social stigma attached to suicide, but also, as Arthur Miller's Willy Loman realized, almost automatically guarantees double indemnity on most life-insurance policies.

From Time Magazine Archive

No one can know for sure, but more and more police and traffic experts suspect that "autocide," as one expert calls it, is an important cause of traffic deaths.

From Time Magazine Archive