You are driving along a 30mph road and are forced to slow down as the car that emerges in front of you is actually sticking within the speed limit. You automatically assume that the driver in front ‘doesn’t know how to drive’ and is probably a woman.

A great number of the UK’s male motorists believe that women drivers are not safe behind the wheel, suggesting that most women drivers do not know how to drive, are too slow or are unaware of what they’re doing.

However, regardless of your experiences on the roads, statistics have proven that women drivers in the UK, are in fact safer than male drivers.

Women can drive

Accident statistics have shown that male drivers are much “worse than women.”

According to the chief executive of GEM Motoring Assist, David Williams, male drivers have more chances of being involved in a serious accident compared to women drivers as men are more likely to “take more risks.”

Men are more likely to over-take other vehicles on a single lane road and break the law by speeding and jumping red lights compared to women.

Figures from the Department for Transport (Dft) “show that 87 per cent of those convicted of motoring offences in the UK in 2006 were men. Of those convicted for dangerous driving 96 per cent were men,” added Mr Williams.

He also stated that : “that men aged between 17 and 25 years are more likely to be involved in accidents or to receive penalties for motoring offences,” according to insurance company figures.

Yet, he added that: “There are about four million more male drivers than females in the UK and the average male driver does a third more driving, so mile for mile the male accident rate does not appear to be significantly worse.”

However, three times more men are killed in road collisions than women, according to statistics from the World Health Organisation.

Men are more likely to have crashes at higher speed resulting in more damages and increased chances of death while women tend to crash at a lower speed- as a result, women are more likely to find it easier to secure cheaper car insurance.

Cheap insurance for women

Last December, figures from AA Insurance found that male drivers make bigger claims than women drivers. The car insurance firm found that the average claim for a young male driver would be about £4,500 in comparison to £2,700 for a woman.

So, even if women do opt for the easier yet longer journey through smaller roads, and even if women do take hours trying to park their car in a space where two or three cars could go, it is statistically proven that women drivers are in fact the safer drivers.  

And this is why car insurance is cheaper for women.