Researchers have found that women are more likely than men to suffer serious injuries in road accidents while driving. Recent studies indicate that most of the increased risks are related to the types of vehicles driven by women and the circumstances of the accidents, rather than physical differences between men and women as previously thought. Notably, this new study was conducted by the Highway Safety Insurance Institute, which discovered that crash test programs have helped women as much as they have helped men in protecting their lives during road accidents.
The study showed that women are at a greater risk of sustaining leg injuries, while data indicated that men experience fatal accidents more frequently than women. However, on a per-collision basis, women’s likelihood of death increases by 20-28% compared to men. Women are also more susceptible to serious injuries after adjusting for speed and other factors, with a ratio of 37-73% compared to men. Additionally, interestingly, when researchers limited the comparison to similar accidents, the gender disparities mostly disappeared, demonstrating that improvements in vehicle crashworthiness benefitted both men and women essentially equally.
Statistics reveal that women are more likely to drive smaller and lighter cars, and they are more likely than men to expose their vehicles to side, front, and rear collisions. Researchers noted that the differences in the probabilities of most injuries narrow significantly once these factors are accounted for. They pointed out that the discrepancy in injury risks between men and women led them to use new crash test dummies that better reflect how female bodies respond to crash forces and other changes in crash testing programs to support their theory.
The study highlighted the issue and helped identify changes that might be necessary for vehicle testing. In frontal collision scenarios, the study found that women were three times more likely to sustain moderate injuries such as bone fractures or concussions, and twice as likely to suffer serious injuries like lung injuries or brain injuries compared to men. In the case of side collisions, the chances of sustaining moderate injuries were nearly equal for both genders, but the likelihood of women sustaining serious injuries was 50%. However, the study states that neither of these results was statistically significant.
One of the most logical explanations for the high injury rates among women is the choice of vehicle they drive. In fact, many women died in road accidents while driving mini-cars and SUVs at nearly equal rates, yet the rate of fatal accidents for women in those vehicles reached 70%, compared to 60% among men.
