c . . . and statistics'
'MALE drivers are more accident- prone than women . . . according to the preliminary findings of a . . . Depart- ment of Transport [surveyj.'
(The Times, 9 August)
THE writer almost certainly means 'careless' rather than 'accident-prone', which usually implies no negligence on the part of the person having the accident. But men are not shown to be more careless or accident-prone than women on an accident-per-mile basis. Department of Transport figures show that the average male drives well over twice as many miles a year as does the average female, yet has just over one- and-a-half as many accidents in a three- year period. True, males drive more on motorways, which are statistically safer, whereas females make more short journeys, but that might be the very reason motorways are statistically safer.
£20 goes to Susan Chappell, of Chis- wick. Send examples to . . and statis- tics'; £20 goes to the best example; £10 for every other published, the first one opened if two or more cover the same example.
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