Men and women may continue to argue about who are the best drivers, but one area where there is a clear gulf between them is the type of bumps and crashes they have in their cars.
Online car insurance specialist elephant.co.uk studied data from 270,000 claims and found that:
- Men are 42% more likely than women to be involved in a head-on collision and 36% more likely to hit a pedestrian on a pavement.
- Women are 55% more likely than men to have an accident in a car park and 47% more likely to have an accident at traffic lights.
elephant.co.uk managing director, Brian Martin, said, "We hold a vast amount of data on accidents and wanted to see if there was a difference between how men and women crash. It soon became clear that there was; women tend to be in more accidents at slower speeds, where cars are close together, while men have more high-speed accidents where it is easy to lose control.
“It seems that generally men drive faster and more aggressively than women, while women are more easily distracted than men behind the wheel."
It’s not just accidents where men and women motorists differ. There are differences when it comes to other claims too:
- Overall women are 78% more likely to lose their keys and 23% more likely to have something stolen from their car.
- Men are 52% more likely to suffer flood damage and 42% more likely to have their car stolen.
Brian Martin continued, "You’d think that the lack of a handbag would make men more likely to lose their keys but this certainly doesn’t seem to be the case. Having handbags on show, along with other expensive items probably accounts for women being more likely to have something stolen from their car.
“It’s very hard to account for why men’s cars are more likely to be stolen, but when it comes to flood damage they’re probably more likely to drive into water thinking they’ll come sailing out the other side than women!”
Types of claims more common among women:
| CLAIM TYPE |
% MORE LIKELY THAN MEN |
| REPLACEMENT KEYS |
78 |
| COLLISION IN CAR PARK |
55 |
| COLLISION AT TRAFFIC LIGHTS |
47 |
| NEW WINDSCREEN |
37 |
| THEFT FROM VEHICLE |
23 |
| HIT THIRD PARTY'S OPEN CAR |
22 |
| HIT CYCLIST |
18 |
| ROUNDABOUT COLLISION |
18 |
| HIT PARKED AND UNATTENDED THIRD PARTY |
15 |
Types of claims more common among men:
| CLAIM TYPE |
% MORE LIKELY THAN WOMEN |
| ELECTRICAL FIRE |
64 |
| FLOOD DAMAGE |
52 |
| HIT ANIMAL |
49 |
| CAR CAUGHT FIRE |
42 |
| CAR STOLEN |
42 |
| HEAD ON COLLISION |
41 |
| HIT TREE |
37 |
| HIT PEDESTRIAN ON PAVEMENT |
36 |
| ARSON |
29 |
Issue date: 01-10-07 |
