Women Are Safer Drivers Than Men

By Author: Marcus Stalder
Total Articles: 491
Comment this article

Men tend to be proud of their abilities and take it amiss if the statistics show them coming in second best to women in any activity. So, for almost every task on the planet, men would boast they are stronger, faster and more accurate. If, for some reason, the activity was physically not possible for a man to perform, they would appoint themselves managers of the activity and tell the women to perform to a higher standard. Such is the way of the world. Except, that is, for insurance. Here the actuaries sit in their small dark offices and worship the numbers. There is only black and white, truth and fiction. Opinions and hearsay count for nothing. So these statistical wizards collect information from all over the US. Whenever and wherever there's a traffic accident, our heroes swoop down and collect details from the police and ambulance files, from the medical records created at the ERs, from the invoices created in the body shops, and from everyone who has anything to say about what happened. There's no more comprehensive program for collecting, processing and analyzing data. The result is a solid basis from which to calculate ...
... how much we should pay to insure our vehicles. The idea is to match the premium rates to the odds any one of us will have an accident.

This means young and inexperienced drivers will pay more. We all know they tend to crash into things when they are learning. It also means that once we start to grow old, our eyesight gets less sharp and our reflexes slow. Seniors over the age of 75 can therefore expect to see their premiums rise. But then we come to the controversial question. The statistics show women are consistently safer drivers than men. They keep to the speed limits and generally drive less recklessly. So, even if there is an accident, they are traveling more slowly. There's less damage to the vehicles and the injuries are less serious.

Does this mean all women should have lower premium rates than men? The answer given in a recent case brought before the European Court is a resounding "no". If a man was required to pay more just because he was a man, this would be a case of sex discrimination. Not all people are the same. There are good drivers and bad drivers. The European Court has ordered insurers to develop statistical models to identify safeness regardless of gender. Everyone is waiting to see how the insurers will react. The expectation is that all the premium rates for women will rise and most of the rates for men will fall, i.e. there will be an equalization. What no one knows if how large or small these changes will be.

Here in the US, the sex discrimination laws do not apply to insurance. The statistics rule. So, when it comes to life insurance, women have a longer life expectancy. With health insurance, women use the healthcare services more than men. When the auto insurance quotes come in, women generally receive lower premium rates. Otherwise they would be subsidizing the bad drivers and that, as they say, would not be fair. Cheap auto insurance for women is acceptable here.