Next time you hear lazy stereotyping about who makes the better drivers, consider this. Male drivers are almost three times more likely than women to kill or seriously injure pedestrians .
Analysis of government road crash data by The Guardian reveals that in the first six months of 2021, 4,363 male drivers were involved in crashes that seriously injured or killed pedestrians, compared with 1,473 female drivers.
Around one third of crashes in which a pedestrian was killed or seriously injured involved a man behind the wheel, compared with 28% for women. And while it’s not altogether clear why male drivers are more dangerous, a survey commissioned by a road safety charity in 2020 found men were three times more likely to speed than women.
Another contributing factor might be explained by the different types of vehicles used for work. Twenty-five percent of pedestrian deaths are due to being hit by someone driving a van, lorry or bus.
As well as being responsible for more deaths, mean are more likely themselves to perish on the roads. According to the latest Department for Transport report, 78% of all road death victims last year were male.
How do we make roads less dangerous?
If roads are engineered for inappropriate speeds it’s hardly surprising that traffic will move to fast. It’s one of the topics we deal with in our 40-minute documentary Stop Killing our Children.
The ethical choice
The ETA was established in 1990 as an ethical provider of green, reliable travel services. Over 30 years on, we continue to offer cycle insurance , breakdown cover and mobility scooter insurance while putting concern for the environment at the heart of all we do.
The Good Shopping Guide judges us to be the UK’s most ethical provider.
John Mullen
This is true but only statistically valid if we know what the ratio of male to female drivers are on the roads on average.