USAToday.com: Boys bad, girls good

	posted by Matt on 03:48 PM March 1st, 2005
	Well it seems 16-YO boys are the main reason girls die in car accidents, or so you may gather from USA Today's March 1, 2005 cover story. From the article: To many who knew the victims, the crash seemed like a cruel act of fate, a freak tragedy beyond anyone's control. But it fit a common formula for teen deaths on the USA's roadways: Put a 16-year-old boy at the wheel of an SUV. Add two or three teens, including at least one other boy. Send them out at night. Finally, let them travel fast — and unbelted. I guess girls never drive recklessly, do they? Not according to this publication from the Scottish government: Although boys constitute the majority of road accident casualties at all ages, accident statistics show that the difference between boys and girls is narrowest during their early teenage years. This research did not find strong evidence to explain this phenomenon. There was little evidence to suggest that girls were any less likely to engage in 'common risk' behaviour but there was some evidence that they were slightly more careful when they did so.

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Regarding the 1st article (Score:1) by DasCoon on 05:49 PM March 1st, 2005 EST (#1) "Teens' risk of dying nearly doubles with the addition of one male passenger, the insurance institute says. It more than doubles with two or more young men in the car." Now, to me it seems to make sense... If there are two people in a car, the chances of someone dieing in that car nearly double. Personally, I have never heard of a single driver dieing twice in the same accident. More people per car = more deaths per accident, this is a no-brainer. Why would they ever make laws based on this statistic? Two seperate drivers instead of a driver and a passanger. Now there are twice as many accidents, same amount of deaths, but luckly only half the deaths per accident, whew that makes me sleep better at night. All the statistics need to be used in conentations of per mile driven. Of course teens die more at night than during the day. Most teens are not driving around during the day, they are at school, drive to and from school, then drive at night to go to a friends house, a movie, or any other place. I know this is true when I was a teen. Also they need to look at teen drivers verus first year drivers to see how much the difference in age is a factor compared to the difference in experience. I am suprised they didn't put that people that don't drive cars are the safest drivers. I don't find the article too negative in terms of male vs female. They don't try to say which gender is a safer driver. Which often they report as female, which is true from a number of accidents point of view, but not from a miles driven point of view.

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