Do men or women get in more car accidents?

Although it’s a highly charged topic for discussion, many people wonder, “Do men or women get into more car accidents?” While men are more likely to get into a crash due to various factors, women driving are more likely to get severely hurt or die. Let’s examine the facts and fallacies with the help of a West Palm Beach car accident lawyer from Lytal, Reiter, Smith, Ivey & Fronrath.

Who has more accidents?

The numbers around crashes involving male drivers compared to female ones show that men tend to have more accidents. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported these crash statistics for 2022:

• Fatal crashes: Males died in 43,582 collisions compared to 14,719 females.
• Injury crashes: Males were hurt in 1,749,828 crashes compared to 1,296,172 females.
• Property damage-only crashes: Males were involved in 4,321,554 accidents compared to 3,075,610 females.

Added together, we see that male drivers were in 6,114,964 accidents, compared to just 4,386,501 female motorists. In Florida specifically, a 2022 publication on Impaired Driving Traffic Safety Facts showed that men were driving in 75% of serious injury accidents and 81% of fatal crashes involving alcohol impairment. In contrast, women drivers represented 25% of injury accidents and 19% of fatalities over the same six-year period.

Why are men more likely to be in an accident?

Female drivers are involved in more fender-bender collisions, while men tend to experience more serious accidents. Several factors contribute to the difference in crash rates between males and females, including:

• Driving more: Men average 16,550 miles annually on the road, compared to 10,142 for women, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

• Driving recklessly: Men are more likely to disobey traffic laws, engage in road rage, and drive aggressively than women. They’re also less likely to adjust their driving behaviors when the weather is bad.
• Driving while distracted: Men may be more likely to engage in using a cell phone or performing other tasks while driving, with the impression that they are better at staying focused on the road.
• Driving under the influence: In a review of various reports, SafeHome.org found that men are involved in nearly 80% of DUI fatality accidents.
• Exceeding speed limits: According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), 6,490 men died in speeding-related car accidents in 2022 compared to 1,766 women.
• Not wearing a seat belt: Men are three times more likely to drive without wearing seat belts than women.

An IIHS report on traffic injury prevention found that men are more likely to survive compared to women in car accidents of similar severity. This may be a result of choosing larger passenger vehicles, often pickup trucks, with a heavier curb weight and greater ride height. The report recommended that designers and manufacturers incorporate female-specific safety features in smaller vehicles to improve women’s survival rates.

Male vs. female often affects auto insurance rates

It’s no secret that insurance companies often charge certain drivers more. As reported in Car and Driver magazine in 2023, insurers often assign higher premiums to younger, male drivers due to their inexperience and sex. Generally, your rates go down as you get older since you tend to become more cautious and gain experience.

However, that same report indicated that once you reach age 60, your rates tend to go up again. That’s because drivers begin experiencing health and other issues that make them more likely to cause motor vehicle crashes, according to the