Are Men Better Drivers Than Women?

WATCH Introducing the Female Crash Test Dummy




He called the difference "astounding."




Women 'Overrepresented' in Accidents







Do Men Drive Better Than Women?

At least one other study debunked the idea that men are better drivers than women are. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that female drivers were involved in slightly more crashes then men, but the difference was not all that great -- 5.1 crashes per million miles driven for men, compared to 5.7 crashes for women.

Age, in various studies, appears to be a more important issue than gender. Teenage boys start off badly, according to the Johns Hopkins study, with about 20 percent more crashes per mile driven than teen-age girls. Between the ages of 20 and 35 males and females are equally at risk of being involved in a crash, and after age 35 female drivers are at greater risk than males.

Other research has found that many factors, including gender, contribute to traffic accidents, especially those resulting in injuries. A Purdue University study found, for example, older men and women are much more likely to die from traffic injuries than younger persons, regardless of gender.

And according to another study just released by Sivak and Schoettle, just driving in a state other than the one in which you live can be deadly. They looked at fatal accidents in all 50 states and found a huge difference in the number of fatal accidents involving an out-of-state driver.

"There is a wide variability across the 50 states in the percentage of all drivers involved in fatal crashes who were out-of-state drivers, with a minimum of 5.0 percent in California to a maximum of 41.2 percent in Wyoming," that study concludes.

Why? Perhaps the vast plains of Wyoming lend themselves to higher speeds than the jammed freeways of California.