According to Dr Randall, around the world more than half of road deaths tend to involve boys and men. In 2018, for instance, the World Health Organisation recorded that 76.8% of the people who died in crashes on South African roads were males. So road trauma is a distinctly male problem although it does also affect females.  This phenomenon is probably related to many different things.  Driving was seen as something very unsuitable for women – and very unsafe for them to do – for about the first half-century after cars started to be manufactured in significant numbers. It’s still banned for women in certain countries. Males overall have always had more opportunities to drive and the more you’re on the roads, the more likely it is that you’ll experience a crash at some stage.  Also, because males in most societies tend to have more financial means than females do, they also find it easier to buy their own vehicles, or to buy larger or more expensive vehicles. Girls and women are also more likely to walk or take public transport, compared to boys and men. 

Dr Randall adds that researchers have noted that women overall are about half as likely as men to be involved in crashes. One study compared male and female drivers who drove similar distances and found that the females had 30% of the crash liability of the males – out of every 100 crashes 70 involved male drivers and only 30 involved female drivers. One study in Turkey found that although young men had the best scores on tests of perceptual-motor skills, young women scored better on safety skills like anticipating and avoiding crashes. The young men also tended to overestimate their perceptual-motor skills, and either having good skills or believing that you do can actually create a risk as drivers put themselves in more dangerous situations. And the risk gets worse if they lack the kinds of safety awareness and skills which are more commonly found in women. Another study found that while women and older drivers made more driving errors, men and younger drivers committed more violations – i.e. they broke the law more often when they drove.

In addition, Dr Randall says that, because men tend to clock up more lifetime kilometres than women, they get more practice when it comes to perceptual-motor skills, but this seems to give them a tendency to operate within narrower safety margins. Because they have a greater sense of confidence and trust in their own abilities, sometimes a very unrealistic sort of optimism, this can actually place them at greater risk of crashes. Women tend to be more cautious and to rate their driving skills more accurately, and this kind of humility is known to reduce crash risks and injuries. It does also come back to stereotypes, though – women are encouraged to be safer drivers and men may be encouraged to be more risk-taking and bold in their driving style, and it is clear that people do live up to – or down to – these kinds of stereotypes. Women are rated as safer drivers by the insurance industry, as shown by the fact that their average car insurance premiums are lower than the average premiums paid by men who drive the same types of vehicle in the same areas. It’s important for employers like trucking companies and farmers to be aware of these gender differences and also to try to dispel the sorts of stereotypes which can in the end lead to dangerous driving, especially amongst male employees. 

You can listen to the full conversation here:

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