Does Gender Play a Role in Your Likelihood of Dying in A Crash?
There are all kinds of variables that influence your risk in a crash. For example, the older you get, the more likely you are to suffer catastrophic injuries or to struggle to bounce back after injuries like fractures. However, age is not the only personal factor that can influence your risk of significant injury or death in a motor vehicle collision.
Weather, how often you drive, the way you maintain your vehicle and even the time of day when you get behind the wheel can all impact the amount of risk you have. These are factors that you can mostly control, but there are other factors, like age, that are beyond your control and may contribute to your overall level of risk in a motor vehicle crash.
What Role Does Gender Play in Crashes?
Despite pervasive cultural stereotypes indicating that women are worse drivers than men, the statistics on fatal crashes bear out the opposite to be true. An analysis of data by the U.S. Department of Transportation found that twice as many men die in crashes when compared with women each year. That’s despite research showing that women are more likely to die in crashes of similar severity when compared with men of the same age.
Why Are Men at Greater Risk for Collisions?
There are multiple factors that might increase the risk that men have on the road. One of them is the fact that men tend to drive more miles than women on average. More time spent behind the wheel means more statistical risk of getting into a crash and potentially suffering injuries.
Beyond that, men are also more likely to engage in dangerous driving practices. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety cites statistics that men often engage in more dangerous driving behaviors than women, such as driving without a safety belt, getting behind the wheel after drinking and speeding.
If you get hurt in a crash, you have the option of filing a claim against the insurance policy that covers the driver responsible for the collision. In some cases, you may also want to consider bringing the personal injury claim against the driver responsible. For those who lose a loved one in the crash that proves fatal, wrongful death lawsuits can be a way to offset the financial impact of that fatality on the family.