There Is No gender Equality in Car Crashes….

We have had it up to here with this gender equality thing, where boys are girls and girls are boys. This crazy concept is all the rage among woke folks who prefer blurred lines in our world today, however; as we will soon see, there is a difference in the world of car wrecks between the sexes. Almost every one of us drives an automobile of some sort, almost every day. Let’s talk about what is really happening on our streets and highways as it relates to gender. Twisted metal, blood and asphalt can tell us something about the differences in men and women.

Men die at a much higher rate than women in automobile crashes. Period. That is because men are not as risk adverse as women. Generally speaking, males tend to do more stupid things. Crashes involving males are often more severe than women, however women are more likely to be killed or injured than males in an equally severe accident. We know that women, in frontal collisions, are 3 times more likely to suffer a broken bone, concussion or other moderate injury and twice as likely to suffer a collapsed lung or traumatic head injury. Is structure, musculature, or weight a factor? The weight and type of vehicle may also be a factor in this statistic. Death is the result of simple physics, the more weight at a given speed requires more energy to stop. This dissipation of energy is what tears a human body or vehicle apart. The answer is elusive. I supervised the Traffic Division for the Missouri State Patrol along the way, a place where accidents were studied at great depth in an effort to positively impact injury and death rates on our highways. Statistics are slow to develop but can be enlightening. It is snowing out, Texas has just experienced a 100 car pileup due to icing on an Interstate, and our body shops are busy estimating and scheduling. This is a perfect time to review what we know. Grab a cup and have a look.

From 1975 through 2018 vehicle occupant death rates have been about 2 times higher for males than females. There has been a notable decline (56% for males and 39% for females) in total deaths. (Likely due to both highway and vehicle engineering and sophisticated enforcement strategies). Let’s look at age. In 2018, males 80 and older suffered the highest death rate per mile driven, followed by males aged 20-29. Male drivers and passengers are twice as likely to die as women in a vehicle driven by a male with a blood alcohol concentration of .08% or higher. It’s the risk aversion thing again. Clearly a case can be made for the difference between males and females, with females showing better judgement. To further illustrate this point, a much greater percentage of males, as opposed to females, involve excessive speed in the equation that led to a fatal accident. Speed DOES kill.

Where are we here? Approximately 29% of all vehicle deaths were female. Males accounted for 48% of all passenger deaths, 3% of large truck deaths were female and females account for 28% of all large truck passenger deaths. Males account for 69% of pedestrian deaths, 86% of bicyclist deaths and 91% of all motorcycle deaths.

The bottom line. When your wife suggests you slow down, yield at an intersection or signal a turn, pay attention. When she asks for the keys at the end of an evening filled with libation, give ‘em up. She is much more likely to be hurt when your episode of driving with your head in your butt leads to a crash and she knows better…..the numbers don’t lie!

Have a wonderful, if not cold, weekend!

SR