# Who gets into more car accidents? Men or Women? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 31, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-gets-into-more-car-accidents-men-or-women/576664 "2011-03-31T18:54:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-gets-into-more-car-accidents-men-or-women/576664/21 "2011-04-01T21:38:03Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > Men. Absolutely! > First of all,the question was not who gets the most accidents per mile. Secondly, who cares what the “per mile” accident rate is? Certainly insurance companies dont care. > . The insurance company most certainly does care how many miles you drive. They didn’t ask your when you applied for a policy? Do you really think that someone who drives 100,000 miles a year is going to get the same rate as someone who drives 1,000? ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-gets-into-more-car-accidents-men-or-women/576664/22 "2011-04-01T23:30:02Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > The insurance company most certainly does care how many miles you drive. They didn’t ask your when you applied for a policy? Do you really think that someone who drives 100,000 miles a year is going to get the same rate as someone who drives 1,000? Are you serious? Do you think the insurance company cares whether or not you drove 10,000 miles or 20,000 miles in order to get those 10 accidents you had last year? No! \*\* It is the 10 ACCIDENTS that they care about!!\*\* Trying to extrapolate accidents per mile, doesnt work. If a person who studies 40 hours a week gets a C in a college course, it does not mean at all that that person would get an A if only he studied 60 hours a week. Lots of people rationalize about their bad grades and say it is because they didnt study very much, and if only they spent more time,they would get all A’s. It does not work that way. Grades have a better correlation with how smart you are. LIkewise, males who get into a lot of accidents, are not excused just because they drive more miles. Accidents have a correlation with how reckless you are. If I let you borrow my car for a week and you have an accident, I dont care if you drove it 10 miles, or 100 miles, or 1000 miles as you wrecked my car. Who cares about the miles? Its the **ACCIDENT!** that I am upset about. There are alternate theories that make the claim that people who drive a lot more than average are actually better drivers than those who dont drive as much. in other words, some drivers that log in more than 100,000 miles per year have less accidents. . ---
**Author:** ![thelabdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@thelabdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelabdude)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-gets-into-more-car-accidents-men-or-women/576664/23 "2011-04-01T23:32:23Z")
Ah, but some insurance companies do base rates on miles driven. ---
**Author:** ![BorgHunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@BorgHunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BorgHunter)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-gets-into-more-car-accidents-men-or-women/576664/24 "2011-04-02T00:44:42Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > There are alternate theories that make the claim that people who drive a lot more than average are actually better drivers than those who dont drive as much. in other words, some drivers that log in more than 100,000 miles per year have less accidents. They probably are. Practice makes perfect and all that. But even a perfect driver, who never makes a single mistake, ever, is twice as likely to get in an accident if they drive 20k miles annually than if they drive 10k, and ten times as likely if they drive 100k, simply by virtue of less skilled/more distracted/more drunk drivers plowing into them on occasion. ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-gets-into-more-car-accidents-men-or-women/576664/25 "2011-04-02T02:05:07Z")
> [@BorgHunter](#): > > They probably are. Practice makes perfect and all that. But even a perfect driver, who never makes a single mistake, ever, is twice as likely to get in an accident if they drive 20k miles annually than if they drive 10k, and ten times as likely if they drive 100k, simply by virtue of less skilled/more distracted/more drunk drivers plowing into them on occasion. I would think the greater number of miles driven would result fewer accidents per mile, example - truck drivers. Practice makes perfect, indeed. Those that put in more miles on the road should average better than those that log fewer. As far as accidents per unit of travel. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-gets-into-more-car-accidents-men-or-women/576664.md?page=1)