2009 STATISTICS SHOW MALE MOTORISTS MORE ACCIDENT-PRONE THAN WOMEN

KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 (Bernama) -- Male motorists were more accident-prone than women in 2009, according to an analysis of road accidents conducted by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros).

In that year, Miros found that the number of male drivers involved in road accidents was 2.4 times higher than that of women.

Miros director-general Professor Dr Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah said the analysis carried out on the police statistics found there were 244,336 cases involving male drivers in 2009, as compared to 103,153 cases involving women.

Based on the country's population, he said men had the average of 1,351.74 accidents for every 100,000 male population. It was an average of 537.97 accidents for every 100,000 female population.

"From these statistics, men clearly have a higher risk of getting
involved in an accident than women," he said in a statement here Wednesday.

However, he said, a detailed analysis on the statistics also found an unhealthy trend on women's involvement in road accidents between 2006 and 2009.

"The number of male drivers involved in accidents had increased by 67.93 per cent from 2006 to 2009, but the number of women drivers involved in accidents in the same period had almost doubled at 97.74 per cent," he said.

Ahmad Farhan was commenting on a statement by Kinabatangan Member of Parliament Bung Moktar Radin in the House of Representatives, two days ago, that women drivers were more reckless than men.

He said studies had shown that men and women had different traits, which in turn, might influence their driving behaviour.

"Generally, women are good at multi-tasking. As driving will also require action and reaction, a multi-tasker may, however, tend to slip up and this may result in being errant in driving.

"Perhaps, this may be the reason, why we do witness some women drivers making slip-ups while driving, as claimed by the member of parliament," he said.

However, he said, men were known to have better psychomotor skills, making them highly-confident and at times, overly confident.

"As a result, a man has the general tendency to drive at high speed, to take chances and to be a greater risk (factor) on the road."