Women have a higher risk of being severely injured and suffering certain types of injuries in in car accidents compared to men. The prevalent theory is that this is the result of physiological differences between men and women. A new study spotlights other more likely factors for this disparity.
The study was conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and the results were released recently. Men are overall much more likely to be involved in fatal accidents than women. However, women are more likely to suffer fatal injuries. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, women are between 20 and 28% more likely to sustain fatal injuries in accidents compared to men. They are also approximately 37 to 73% more likely to suffer serious injuries in an accident compared to male drivers, even after adjusting for factors like speed.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, women are more likely to suffer certain types of injuries in accidents because of the types of vehicles that they are likely to drive. The circumstances surrounding the accident could also have a lot to do with the kind of injuries that females suffer. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety researchers found that in a front-impact accident, women had a 3 times higher risk of experiencing moderate injuries like concussions. The risk of suffering a traumatic brain injury or lung injuries was twice as high as for males.
According to the researchers, women are much more likely to drive smaller, lighter vehicles, and this could definitely account for the higher risk of serious injuries. Motorists traveling in smaller passenger vehicles, do not have the same injury prevention benefits that motorists travelling in large vehicles like SUVs do. In accidents involving front-to-rear or side-impact, or T-bone, collision, men were more often found to be the driver in the striking vehicle. The driver of the striking vehicle in such accidents usually has a lower risk of injury than the occupants of the vehicle that is hit in these collisions. This may also contribute to the injury discrepancy between the two genders.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety acknowledges that traffic safety for women has improved significantly over the past couple of decades, just as it has for men, thanks to the increasing reliability of crashworthiness tests. We now possess much greater knowledge about the science of preventing injuries in accidents, and this knowledge has benefited males as well as females equally. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is currently focusing on how crashworthiness testing can be further improved to increase safety for female motorists and passengers.
The Atlanta car accident lawyers at the Katz Personal Injury Lawyers are dedicated to the legal representation of persons who have been injured as a result of car accidents in the Metro Atlanta region and across Georgia. If you or a loved one have been injured in a car accident in the metro Atlanta region, talk to a car accident lawyer at the Katz Personal Injury Lawyers, and determine your legal options for a claim. You may qualify for compensation that includes medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering and other damages.