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Dammit, Women Are Better Than Us Men on the Road

Carboy submitted on 01/22/2007 Official AutoSpies Timestamp: 3:49 PM
from: leisure.newstimeslive.com

[35] user comments | category: Misc News

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Dammit, Women Are Better Than Us Men on the Road

Risk of death higher for male drivers; elderly women more likely to die than teenage boys
WASHINGTON (AP) - That age-old stereotype about dangerous women drivers is shattered in a big new traffic analysis: Male drivers have a 77 percent higher risk of dying in a car accident than women, based on miles driven.

And the author of the research says he takes it to heart when he travels _ his wife takes the wheel.

"I put a mitt in my mouth and ride shotgun," said David Gerard, a Carnegie Mellon University researcher who co-authored a major new U.S. road risk analysis.

The study holds plenty of surprises.

_The highway death rate is higher for cautious 82-year-old women than for risk-taking 16-year-old boys.

_New England is the safest region for drivers _ despite all those stories about crazy Boston drivers.

_The safest passenger is a youngster strapped in a car seat and being driven during morning rush hour.

The findings are from Traffic STATS, a detailed and searchable new risk analysis of road fatality statistics by Carnegie Mellon for the American Automobile Association. Plans are to make the report public next week, but The Associated Press got an early look.

The analysis calculates that overall, about one death occurs for every 100 million passenger miles traveled. And it shows that some long-held assumptions about safety on U.S. highways don't jibe with hard numbers. It lists the risk of road death by age, gender, type of vehicle, time of day and geographic region.

"We are finding comparisons that are surprising all the time," said study co-author Paul Fischbeck, a Carnegie Mellon professor of social and decision sciences. "What is necessary now is to go through and do that second level of analysis to figure out why some of these things are true."

For example, those dangerous 82-year-old women are 60 percent more likely to die on the road than a 16-year-old boy because they are so frail, said Anne McCartt, a research official at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, who was not part of the study.

"It's an issue not of risk-taking behavior, but of fragility," McCartt said. The elderly are more likely to die when they are injured in an accident, she said, an explanation that Gerard and Fischbeck validate.

These elderly women have the nation's highest road death risks even when they're not driving _ five times higher than the national average.

Right behind octogenarians in high risk are young male drivers, ages 16-23 with fatality rates four times higher than average.

That can be attributed to "inexperience and immaturity," McCartt said.

Drivers aged 40 and 50 tie for the lowest risk of dying in an accident. But if you're a male out at 2 a.m. Saturday on a motorcycle in the South, you may want to take out some more insurance.

By combining a batch of data of all types, you can construct the safest possible scenario on the road: That would involve a 4-year-old girl in a van or school bus, stuck in a Wednesday morning rush hour in New England in February.

Of all the ages to be in a car, 4-year-olds have the lowest death risks _ probably because they are in child car seats and their parents drive more carefully, Fischbeck said.

"They are really protected, they're being driven around in times of day when it's very safe (and often in minivans)," Fischbeck said. "It's a win-win-win-win situation."

As for men being more likely to die than women? McCartt and Fischbeck said men take more risks, speed more, drink and drive more.

"They do stupider things," said Fischbeck, a former military pilot who has twin toddlers and a "totally unsafe" 1974 Volkswagen Thing.

Fischbeck's study didn't get into specific car makes, but found larger vans to be the safest with a death rate less than half the national average for cars, and the drivers themselves played a role.

"It's a combination of they're safe and the people who drive them are dull," Fischbeck said.

School buses, massive vehicles driven during normally safe hours, have a death rate that is one-50th that of average passenger vehicles.

But the death rate on motorcycles was nearly 32 times higher than for cars. One of the riskiest combinations in the database are men between ages 21 and 24 who drive motorcycles between midnight and 4 a.m. Their road fatality risk is 45,000 times higher than normal.

The most deadly hour is at 2 a.m., which is often when bars close and many deaths are alcohol-related, Fischbeck said.

The fewest deaths per mile driven are at 8 a.m., mostly because the roads are so clogged with traffic _ and teenage drivers are in school, McCartt said.

That explains New England's No. 1 ranking for lowest death risk on the road, she said.

Heavy traffic "makes it much more difficult for people to speed," McCartt said.

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Rupert - 1/22/2007 5:37:25 PMView My AgentSpace

+1 Boost

women do have more accidents - but they are usually minor ie parking scrapes, which i'm sorry to say isn't a stereotype, women have worse spatial awareness than men (men better at directions, navigation, knowing "where" they are in relation to their surroundings).
however men are more reckless and die more.
it's not an argument you want to get into is it?

man: well you can't park or give directions! (he feels that was a good statement)
woman: well you have a 77% higher chance of dying than me(she knows she's right)
man: crap....(very unhappy)

really, the woman should drive and the man navigate. that's the best solution.

reply to this comment

Rupert - 1/22/2007 5:37:55 PMView My AgentSpace

0 Boost

i should add
you get to your destination on time and you have a lower risk of dying!

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Rupert - 1/23/2007 12:34:32 PMView My AgentSpace

+3 Boost

"Women know their position"

what?
are you that outdated? should she be in the kitchen according to you?

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MunichRob - 1/22/2007 4:51:02 PMView My AgentSpace

+5 Boost

"MDalle" I hear yeah loud & clear bud...Only 1 month into the lease on my 650 my girlfriend rear ended a Jag with me in the passenger seat.

The fins on the grill were all bent, the front bumper was cracked, & the parking sensors needed to be replaced. Needless to say she is still yet to drive the car again, and that was 6 months ago.

More men die in cars for one simple reason…BALLS…something women are without (which is good) causing us males to do stupid and daring moves out on the road.

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Rupert - 1/22/2007 5:31:44 PMView My AgentSpace

+2 Boost

"It's a combination of they're safe and the people who drive them are dull"

hahahaha way to dig at minivan drivers.

reply to this comment

SilverAero - 1/22/2007 5:56:11 PM

+2 Boost

I think the diffecence between choice of car among men and women is important to mention. If i had to guess women choose safer cars.

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EL34 - 1/22/2007 6:46:45 PM

+1 Boost

I drive like a woman, it's true!

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webguy - 1/22/2007 7:08:57 PM

+2 Boost

Yep, I could buy these stats, from my personal experience:

A woman’s (a very smart, independent business owner I might add) response as to why she buys large SUVs: "Well… I tend to hit things. I need a big 'safety zone.'"

A man’s response to why he’s in the hospital. "I was racing this dude in a Corvette and a car pulled out in front of me."

I’ve never known a man with "a tendency to hit things," but never known a woman with a tendency to be a bombastic moron.

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JCF110 - 1/22/2007 9:28:33 PM

-1 Boost

Gay men don't take risks, so does that mean we live longer or something? ;-)

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S4cabriofoxone - 1/22/2007 10:10:51 PMView My AgentSpace

0 Boost

Good to know... you're gay.

sexi_gay_boi - 1/22/2007 11:45:10 PM

-2 Boost

JCF... call me! ;-)

JCF110 - 1/24/2007 12:09:44 PM

+2 Boost

There is something called a condom ;-) and they come in all flavors too! ;-)

S4cabriofoxone - 1/22/2007 10:10:31 PMView My AgentSpace

+3 Boost

Well of course, we drive faster!

I do (did) the same thing with my wife. She does the air brake and gasps and yells when I drive, and we just have the most ridiculous fights. Doesn't she realize that I'm a skilled driver by now?

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S4cabriofoxone - 1/23/2007 8:50:15 AMView My AgentSpace

+2 Boost

Yeah, totally, I drive a Volkswagen Bitch Basket Cabrio.

NO!

Notice my screenname. I have a 344hp Audi S4 Cabriolet.

kart1 - 1/22/2007 11:44:09 PM

+2 Boost

Yeah tend to take more risks, but I just can't help it. I just get so frustrated with all the stupid drivers. Plus racing is another thing - I almost got into an accident when I was racing my cousin. But my official statement is: If I have to drive like a grandma I rather not drive at all.

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Autophile - 1/23/2007 1:40:52 AM

+1 Boost

Boys are better than girls...

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zsz1 - 1/23/2007 4:40:39 AM

+3 Boost

Only recently, there was a news article about a girl who wasn't paying attention to the road because she was typing a message into her cell phone while driving (something none of use ever see, I'm sure). She ended up hitting and killing a (male college student) cyclist on a road with a low speed limit that was known to be used often by cyclists. She ended up getting her license suspended for six months (yes, that was the extent of her punishment). Had the guy been in a car, one might suppose that this study would have counted his death toward the statistic of those "inexperienced and immature" 16-23 year old guys, who - according to this article - are presumably always to be blamed when they die at the wheel.

When you take into account the author's self-deprecating attitude, it really becomes quite evident that this propaganda piece is less about fact and more about ideologically tainted advocacy research.

If one wishes to gather statistics about driver safety, one has to look at who caused the accident - not who died. What an absurdly useless study indeed.

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Threepoint1415926 - 1/23/2007 9:57:09 PM

+3 Boost

The first thing to ask when looking at gathered statistics is "who paid for them?"

AUTO_UNION - 1/23/2007 9:47:16 AM

+2 Boost

I agree with you guys.

reply to this comment

ElSparquito - 1/23/2007 4:45:06 PM

+4 Boost

I suppose women are generally safer on the road than men...unless they're on the phone...or fixing their hair...or trying to find the nearest Starbucks using their navi's...or looking for something in their purses...or getting out of their cars at a drive up ATM... (speaking from personal experience)

reply to this comment

kart1 - 1/23/2007 10:14:44 PM

+4 Boost

Yeah the makeup thing is a daily occasion. Plus I have to disagree with the title and research "Dammit, Women Are Better Than Us Men on the Road" because it just says that they are safer and that in no way translates into being a better driver, in my book. A really slow driver may be safe but it makes the driver behind mad and cause road rage - so the safe driver is the real bad driver in this scenario because she is the only person who is holding back traffic. This may lead to the dangerous risks that men take.

kart1 - 1/23/2007 10:18:22 PM

+3 Boost

notice I put "she" in there, in no effort to be "politically correct" ;).

ElSparquito - 1/24/2007 11:34:05 AM

+2 Boost

LOL

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