Researchers who studied thousands of traffic accidents over a 20-year period came up with a finding that even they found surprising: Female drivers are far more likely to run into a car driven by another woman than a man.
Crashes involving two female drivers were "overrepresented" in five out of six different crash scenarios: Variations on crossing another vehicle's path, side-swiping, turning in front of another vehicle, and head on. But here's the baffling part - when both vehicles were driven by a female, the crashes exceeded the expected frequency by at least 50 percent in two scenarios, and more than 25 percent in three others.
The percentage of accidents in which a woman sideswipes another female driver to her left came in at a whopping 52 percent compared to the expected frequency of 15.8 percent. In the same type of accident involving two male drivers, the percentage was 22 percent below the expected level of 36.2 percent.
Similarly, if a female crossed the path of an approaching vehicle driven by another woman, the number of accidents was 50 percent above the expected level of 17 percent.
The percentage of accidents involving one male and one female driver were close to the expected level for all six scenarios.
In a nutshell, what that says is a woman is far more likely to crash into another woman than a man, but a man is less likely than expected to crash into another man.
What the research doesn't explain is why that should be the case. Sivak said in a telephone interview that the study clearly shows there is a gender interaction component in traffic accidents, but he doesn't know why female drivers are so "overrepresented" in accidents involving two women. The study begs for clarification, but he said it may not be possible to answer the question of why.
