This title will come as no surprise to those who have followed driving accident statistics over the years. However, it will surprise those who take heed of television and magazine adverts by the likes of Admiral Insurance who say they charge women smaller premiums than men because they have fewer accidents. Quite a lot of women have been taken in by this scam. Admiral indeed charge women less than men, but if women shop around they will find that other insurance companies (most of them) who charge men less than women, will offer women a much smaller premium than Admiral will.

I remember reading a report on this subject some six or seven years ago which clearly showed that FOR EVERY MILLION MILES DRIVEN women have 18 percent more accidents than men. This is the only fair way to make a comparison of course as women do not drive anywhere near the miles that men do each day; if you do not go out in a car very often your chances of having an accident are fairly small.

The recent press release by the John Hopkins School of Public Health has also come to the same conclusion that women are worse drivers than men. I quote some of the findings of the report below.

What amused me was their attitude in disclosing this fact about female drivers. They bend over backwards to minimise their findings. The title is a masterpiece of contorted understatement:
"Women are not necessarily better drivers than men". For an attempt to mislead the reader, this title will take some beating. If, after the last test match when England were roundly beaten by Australia, a newspaper had reported the match under the heading "England are not necessarily a better team than Australia", I think there would have been a few complaints from "down under".

Another source which I found rather humorous was a report on the web which stated:
"Although men are three times more likely than women to be killed in car crashes, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Schools of Medicine and Public Health have found that, when the total numbers of crashes are considered, female drivers are involved in slightly more crashes than men. Overall, men were involved in 5.1 crashes per million miles driven compared to 5.7 crashes for women, despite the fact that on average they drove 74 percent more miles per year than did women.

"Slightly" more car crashes? Do you consider 12percent to be "Slight"? I think if the Chancellor of the Exchequer said he was going to make a slight increase in income tax rates and then made an increase of 12 percent, every tax payer would disagree with his euphemism.

The report does eventually disclose the facts about driving accidents and, if you dig them them out of the camouflage, it is clear that the hoary old myth that "women are better drivers than men" is just a myth and nothing more.