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Do Men Get Into More Accidents Than Women?

We all know that men pay higher insurance rates to drive the same car on the same road as women, but why? According to the insurance industry, men get into more accidents, they wear seat belts less often, they get more speeding tickets, they get more DUI’s, and they are more likely to suffer from serious injury or death when they do get into an accident. But is this true? Is that what you experience in real life? Do men really get into more accidents than women? www.esurance.com/info/car/why-women-pay-less-for-car-insurance

Unadjusted crash statistics via Auto Express

First off, men drive more than women. A lot more. It is estimated that men drive an average of 16,550 miles per year, while women only drive 10,142 miles per year. So it would make sense that all things being equal, men who do 62% of the driving should be the cause of 62% of the accidents, yes? www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/bar8.htm

According to the U.S. National Highway Safety Administration, men cause 6.1 million accidents per year and women cause 4.4 million per year. If we do a little math… square root of pi… carry the one…. And we find that men who do 62% of the driving only cause 58% of the accidents, and that includes male teenage drivers! No doubt, the rate of accidents caused by men would be even lower if the statistics were adjusted to exclude all drivers under the age of 25. Sorry ladies.www.trafficsafetystore.com/blog/who-causes-accidents/

Woman with lipstick via Pinterest

We can see the same results when we look at miles driven per year. Men drive 1.726 million-million miles per year, while only women drive 1.072 million-million miles per year. A quick trip through the calculator tells us that women are responsible for 15% more accidents than men over the same distance of driving.

Dr. Michael Sivak at the University of Michigan has been studying this issue along with other driving trends for some time now: www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/07/women_worse_drivers_more_crashes_than_men_less_driving.html

Collision via Utah Advocates

So why is it that insurance companies have gender based rates and continue to force the best drivers on the road (men) to pay artificially high insurance premiums, while giving preferential pricing to the drivers causing the most accidents? Surely, the insurance companies are fully aware of that women cause more accidents than men. I suggest you call your local insurance agent and ask!

Keep driving my friends!

My thanks to Jeff and Larry for their help with this article.

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