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It is often said that women are safer drivers than men, with statistical tables about fatalities to prove it. But that may be misleading. Look at the chart on page 22 (scroll down) at this site:
Women drive 37% of all miles driven, but are involved in more than 40% of all accidents, and more than 42% of all injury accidents. Men are involved in most fatal accidents, but those account for only 0.5% of all accidents, and counting all accidents, a woman driver, per mile, is more likely to be involved in a reportable accident or an injury accident than a male driver.
A number of factors could account for men being involved in most fatal accidents, including the fact that men are more likely to be driving on roads where the traffic speed is high enough to increase the risk of death in a crash. Also, men disproportionally drive late at night, when most fatal accidents occur, as women tend to limit their driving to commuting or shopping. But it is misleading to use only fatal accident statistics to draw a conclusion about the relative safety of male and female drivers.
In before anyone else. And I've got my super-size bag of popcorn.
To contribute at least a little - yes, women get into more crashes per mile driven. If you see a car with a dent on either rear corner bumper, I can guarantee you it's a woman driver.
That said, when women crash, they don't nearly as often make the evening news as men.
Men - especially young men - are more apt to take more risks, and be more aggressive drivers. On the other hand, women are more apt to be distracted as they're yapping on their phones, or engrossed in conversation with somebody in the car.
Women are biologically inferior with regards to spatial awareness and navigation, e.g., driving. This makes them more uncoordinated than men when it comes to getting behind the wheel. Men on the other hand are disadvantaged by testosterone which causes them to be more apt to making riskier maneuvers. However, with crashing... I mean accidents, the demerits of lacking spatial awareness trump that of the risky moves.
Also, men are more likely to have grown up in an environment where importance was placed on understanding mechanical things and devices that are under mechanical control. So they have an understanding of how a car responds to things that the female driver does, and are therefore better equipped to take evasive action in an event carrying a risk of accident. And, because males drive, on average, almost twice as many miles in a lifetime as females, they are more experienced drivers than a female of the same age.
Just gotta stir the pot, dont'cha jtur88?
I'm guessing, what that person is driving has to come into play as well! I drive different cars differently. So soccer mom, in her oversized SUV, might drive differently, than if she was driving, let's say an R8
And for the record....I have no dents, dings or scratches on my car!
I didn't look at the report posted, but judging solely from my own 25+ years of driving experience---I consistently see men doing riskier moves (and in more accidents) than the ladies. Again, that has been my experience in observing those around me for a long period of time. Both my sister and I started driving vehicles when we were pre-teens on the farm. So driving cars/trucks was pretty much second nature to us. It really depends on how you're raised around vehicles. Our Dad insisted we know how to handle vehicles. But I am sure he would have done that regardless of our gender.
In the 13 years I've been driving, I've been rear-ended 4 times. 3 of those were caused by women. Two weren't paying attention by their own admission, one fell asleep at the wheel. One was caused by a guy whose wife was yelling at him at the time. My wife has been rear-ended in my vehicle once, by a woman who wasn't paying attention (her own admission).
My wife has also been involved in her own fender benders. Once rear ending someone (not paying attention), once t-boning someone (in my car before we were married). That one was a wash...it was raining and the other person didn't have headlights on, so they weren't visible. The wife was still at fault though for not yielding.
Me? My accidents have involved me clipping a road sign when I slid on a wet road right after I got my license, backing into someone going the wrong way down a road (that one was a no-fault, per the insurance company) and clipping my neighbors truck trying to get out of someones way. I'm not perfect...but from my point of view and experience, women are not "safer" drivers. YMMV.
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