If you ever wondered who causes more car accidents – men or women – and how they compare, you’ve come to the right place. Car accidents are dangerous regardless of who causes them, and they are typically caused by driver negligence – whether the driver in question is a man or a woman. If another driver’s negligence causes you to be injured, consult with an experienced Texas local car accident lawyer today.
What’s In This Guide
Car Accident Statistics: Male vs Female
If you are interested in the skinny on car accident statistics in terms of male vs female, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is here for you. The basics – based on fatality facts 2019 – include:
- Far more men than women die every year in traffic accidents.
- Men are more likely to engage in dangerous driving practices than women are, including driving while under the influence of alcohol, not wearing a seat belt, and speeding.
- Male drivers tend to be involved in more severe crashes than women are.
- In car accidents of equal severity, however, women are more likely than men to be killed (this difference in risk of fatality decreases with age).
- The number of crash deaths for men for almost every year from 1975 to 2019 was more than twice the number for women. The gap, however, has narrowed.
- From 1975 to 2019, crash deaths for men decreased by 22 percent, while crash deaths for women decreased by only 12 percent.
- Since 1975, the rate of motorcyclist fatalities has risen by more than 50 percent for both men and women.
- In 2019, 71 percent of driver fatalities for passenger vehicles were men.
- That same year, 48 percent of passenger fatalities for passenger vehicles, 96 percent of driver fatalities for large trucks, 67 percent of passenger fatalities for large trucks, 70 percent of pedestrian fatalities, 86 percent of bicyclist fatalities, and 91 percent of motorcyclist fatalities were all men.
- For every year from 1982 to 2019, the percentage of driver fatalities related to alcohol impairment for passenger vehicles has been substantially higher for men than for women.
- For every year from 1982 to 2019, speeding has played a role in a greater percentage of driver fatalities for men than for women.
The data is in, and according to the IIHS, men cause considerably more car accidents than women do.
The NHTSA Also Weighs In
The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also shares exhaustive research (in a study spanning from 1996 to 2006) related to car accident statistics when men’s driving is compared to women’s. Consider the following:
- Traffic fatalities were higher for men than women in every age group (even as men made up half or less of the population in each age group).
- During these 11 years, the only groups that saw an increase in fatality rates (for all ages and both sexes) were men aged from 41 to 45, men aged from 46 to 50, and men aged from 51 to 55. This means that men aged from 41 to 55 saw increased fatality rates over an 11-year span (while no other groups did).
It’s decided – when you crunch the numbers, men come out on top in terms of being statistically more likely to cause dangerous traffic accidents.
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Risky Driver Behaviors
Traffic accidents are generally caused by driver negligence, which boils down to engaging in risky driver behaviors.
Speed
Excess speed is a big one. Excess speed takes center stage in far too many dangerous driving statistics. Motorists who blast past the speed limit – or who drive too fast in relation to the road’s condition – significantly increase the risk they’ll cause accidents and significantly increase the risk those accidents will prove deadly. When motorists speed, they allow themselves less time to react safely to risk factors on the road and they increase the power of the impact caused by any ensuing accidents, which is a dangerous combination.
Distraction
Drivers who don’t pay attention to driving safely are unsafe drivers. While there are plenty of dangerous distractions out there, texting takes the cake in terms of how deadly it is. When motorists take the time to write, read, or send texts behind the wheel, they spend an average of five seconds doing it, and during that five seconds, they drive about the length of a football field (at highway speeds). That is an incredibly dangerous proposition. Texting is unique in its ability to combine all three classifications of distraction into one streamlined form of negligent driving, including:
- Distractions involving a driver’s vision
- Distractions involving a driver’s thoughts
- Distractions involving a driver’s hands
Impairment
When drivers are impaired by alcohol, they experience a decrease in their impulse control and their logical thinking, which leaves them at a safety disadvantage right out of the gate. When you add their physical, sensory, and cognitive impairments to this, they are a disaster when it comes to safety. Impaired drivers also play far too prominent a role in fatal traffic accident statistics.
Exhaustion
Drowsy drivers don’t have to fall asleep behind the wheel to be dangerous – although falling asleep while driving is obviously exceptionally dangerous. Drowsy drivers often have difficulty concentrating, which makes it more difficult for them to make safe driving decisions. In fact, the impairments drowsy drivers experience are not dissimilar to those experienced by drivers who are over the limit in terms of alcohol.
Experienced Texas Car Accident Attorneys Care about You and Your Claim
If you have a burning desire to know whether women or men are statistically more prone to cause dangerous traffic accidents, the jury is in, and it’s men. Regardless of whose negligence leaves you injured, however, the focused Texas car accident attorneys at The Patel Firm are in your corner and are well prepared to help. To learn more, please don’t wait to contact or call us at 361-400-2036 today.
