Watch your step after a night on the town: the majority of people who die after falling down the stairs have been hitting the booze.

Roman Bux of the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, analysed 43 fatal falls in the city in order to help insurance companies better understand the underlying causes - they will not pay out on life policies where death was self-induced through intoxication. Of the fatalities, 23 people had been drinking heavily and 19 had pre-existing medical conditions such as heart disease.

"We have shown a fatal fall down stairs without an underlying severe disease or alcohol influence is a rare phenomenon," Bux says (Forensic Science International, DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2006.10.010).

From issue 2585 of New Scientist magazine, 04 January 2007, page 15