One of the unavoidable risks to driving in California is the chance that you may end up in a car accident. While you hope it would be relatively minor if so, thousands of Californians are injured in car accidents every year.
A fact that relatively few people know is that women are more likely to be injured in motor vehicle accidents than men. Fewer people know the reasons why this is the case. As it turns out, the reason for the difference in injury rates has nothing to do with physiological differences.
Vehicle type is a major factor
Probably the biggest reason women are injured more than men in vehicle collisions is due to the types of vehicles men and women tend to drive.
As a general rule, a person driving a larger vehicle is less likely to be injured in the same severity of accident as someone driving a smaller vehicle.
Men are more likely to drive larger vehicles, especially pickup trucks. While women tend to drive smaller vehicles, and as a result tend to suffer certain types of injuries characteristic of those experienced when in an accident while in a small car.
Circumstances of the accident play a part too
Another significant factor is that men are more likely to be the vehicle colliding into another, while women are more likely to be the vehicle being struck in an accident.
Once again, as a general rule, the person in the vehicle making the impact is less likely to suffer an injury. And those being struck are at greater risk. Part of the reason for this is that vehicles are especially designed to take impacts to the direct front. While impacts to the side of the vehicle in particular tend to cause injuries at a high rate.
Women tend to be injured at a higher rate then men in vehicle accidents. The two main reasons are the differences in the types of vehicles men and women drive and the fact that women are more likely to be the party struck in an accident.