Men officially worse drivers than women

Men are two-and-a-half times more likely to be convicted for driving offences than their female counterparts, according to findings by Confused.com.

The statistics, which were recorded by Confused.com between January 2007 and 2008, show huge gulfs between the behaviour of men and women on the roads. While 2,305,374 male misdemeanours were recorded, ranging from death by dangerous driving to speeding, women fared better with 920,027 convictions.

Speeding accounted for 76% of total convictions.Although men were by far the worst offenders – racking up 1,674,896offences over the past year compared with 768,278for women – speeding accounted for 73% of total male offences, compared with a whopping 84% of total female offences.

Significantly, men are seven times more likely than women to be caught driving without due care and attention, and twice as likely to be pulled over for failing to comply with traffic light signals.

Debra Williams, managing director at Confused.com, said: “The fact that men have been proved to have worse driving records than women must not detract from the fact that a worrying 3.2 million driving convictions were recorded on Confused.com alone, in the last twelve months. To make matters worse, most of these convictions were errors of judgement such as speeding offences and failing to comply with traffic light signals.

“We would like to remind drivers that not only does dangerous and careless driving have a safety implication, but gaining points on your licence also has a detrimental effect on your insurance premiums. On average, a driver with three points will see premiums leap 7%, rising to 25% for six points and 50% for nine points; and the number of insurers willing to insure a driver with nine points can halve.

“While nobody is perfect, we would advise our customers to take more care when driving. Planning your route, allowing extra time and taking into consideration elements such as the great British weather, should result in less accidents and a reduction in convictions.”