Gender prejudices are still very much alive on the asphalt. One in 5 male drivers (19% of the total) admits that he has on some occasion insulted a woman behind the wheel simply because she is a woman. It is one of the conclusions of a study by Fundación Línea Directa, presented today.
In this survey, 86% of those consulted affirm that there are gender prejudices in driving vehicles, a percentage that in the case of men is reduced - although it is still very high - to 77%. This belief is higher in Extremadura, the Valencian Community and Castilla-La Mancha, and lower in La Rioja, the Community of Madrid and Murcia.
When asked why men suffer more accidents, the majority response among women (34%) is that they ask for it: “they run more and break the rules more.”
Men have another explanation for that reality; For them, the reason for having more accidents than women is justified because men travel more kilometers (26%) and that most of their trips (55%) are “out of habit”, which reduces attention.
And another fact that for men would justify that they suffer more accidents and that has to do with these differences, by gender, behind the wheel. When traveling as a couple, 75% of the time the man drives and they travel, on average, 70% more kilometers than the women.
And when it comes to deciding which vehicle to buy, men also win by a landslide here. They are the ones who choose the model and when the acquisition is made.
Knowing these data, it should not be surprising that in the last decade, 90% of the drivers who died in Spain were men, as were 85% of those injured in these accidents, as concluded by the study 'Safe cars for all.' Analysis of accidents from a gender perspective (2012-2021)', prepared by the Línea Directa Foundation and presented this Tuesday by the general director of this entity, Mar Garre.
In the decade between 2012 and 2021, 9,642 men and 1,029 women have died on the asphalt. On the list of wounded, 49,515 were men and 8,646 were women. “If we talk about the most frequent fatal accident, there are also important differences between genders,” says Garre.
In the female case, the most common is a head-on collision (22%) with a car (77%); and for men, the accident is a road departure with a collision (23%) with a car, although in a much smaller proportion (46%).
This study has concluded, on the other hand, that female drivers are 17% more likely to die in a traffic accident than men and are twice as likely to have a brain injury as the opposite sex.
The explanation? Mar Garre reveals that “by not reaching the pedals well, many women are forced to get too close to the steering wheel, which significantly increases the probability of suffering serious injuries to the thorax, face and neck when the airbag is activated.”
And the design of the seat belt also favors "the 'submarining' effect in female drivers, a slippage in the seat that can cause significant internal injuries due to the pressure of the lower band on the belly," adds Garre.
This study criticizes that “the belt does not take into account the female chest or adequately protect the woman's shoulders.”
The conclusion regarding this reality falls on its own weight: “Traditionally, the female body has not been taken into account in crash tests, since the dummies most used in these tests have been two male prototypes,” concludes the general director of the Foundation. Direct line.
