Why men are twice as deadly at the wheel of their car as women

MEN behind the wheel pose a much greater risk to other road users than women, researchers warn.

They found that male drivers in cars and vans are more than twice as likely to kill someone than female counterparts for every kilometre they drive.

For men in charge of lorries, the danger they will be involved in a fatal crash is around four times higher than for women.

Among motorcyclists, men were found to be around ten times more likely to kill another person than women.

The study says male riders tend to choose more powerful motorbikes while women stick to low-power mopeds.

For cyclists, the risk posed by men was around double that from female bike riders. Men could be more of a threat to other road users because they take more risks, say researchers. They add that these dangers are further increased as men are far more likely to drive the most dangerous vehicles, like heavy goods lorries.

Academics from the universities of Westminster and Cambridge analysed deaths and casualties on roads in England from 2005 to 2015 looking at six types of vehicles: lorries, vans, cars or taxis, buses, motorcycles and bicycles.

Road statistics allowed them to work out whether men or women drove vehicles involved in fatal crashes and how far they were typically driven in a year.

The study also examined the rate of other people’s deaths per distance travelled on A-roads and minor roads in urban and rural areas. The authors suggest encouraging more women into jobs involving a lot of driving ‘given the greater likelihood that other road users will be killed if men are driving or riding’.

dr Rachel Aldred, first author of the study from the University of Westminster, said: ‘So many jobs used to be male-dominated and are not now. Yet if you look at HGV, bus driving and driving instructor jobs, a range of driving-related jobs, they are overwhelmingly male.’

Buses were the only vehicles where the risk was similar for men and women, said the study in the journal Injury Prevention.

nTaxi hailing apps such as Uber could lead to more crashes as they distract drivers and pedestrians, warns a US study involving Oxford University.

It said drivers are preoccupied with their GPS while those hailing cabs turn into ‘phone zombies’ as they check if it is near.