Women injured more in accidents, blame it on smaller cars

The smaller cars that women drive or prefer to drive, and the types of crashes they are involved in, explains why women are more prone to serious injuries than men. According to research by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), women are 20-28% more likely to be killed and 37-73% more likely to be seriously injured in car accidents. This is majorly due to the women drivers’ preference to drive smaller cars that are more prone to get damaged severely as compared to larger cars.

The study also analyzed data ranging from 1998 to 2015, shows that around 70% of women crashed in cars as compared to 60% of men. It also reveals that more than 20% of men crashed in trucks as compared with less than 5% of women.

Talking about the result of the study, Jessica Jermakian, Vice President of vehicle research, IIHS said that the numbers indicate that women more often drive smaller, lightweight cars that are more prone to be impacted severely during side-impact and front-into-rear crashes.

According to IIHS, women were still more likely – two-and-a-half times more – to suffer moderate leg injuries in a car accident. The agency is confident that discovering these disparities will help future cars to be safer. More data regarding this issue means automakers will be able to make safer and better cars.

While today, cars are much safer as compared to what they were a decade ago. Front airbags, ABS, EBD, etc are some of the safety features that have become almost standard for even the entry-level models. However, in many cases, the small entry-level models, especially in countries like India, Brazil, etc where the safety norms are not at par with the developed world, automakers take advantage of the not-so-strict law and sell unsafe cars. The majority of them are small ones.