Wisconsin Motor Vehicle Crash Statistics By Gender

Let The Women Take The Wheel!

In a recent article on Wisconsin car crashes by age group, we showed how motor vehicle statistics can be a source of useful car safety information, if properly analyzed and understood. But there is more to be discovered in the 2009 Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) Traffic Crash Facts, namely the great disparity between crashes caused by men and women.

In Wisconsin, the number of driver licenses is divided almost equally between men and women, and this is true for all age groups. The number of men involved in all types of crashes is, however, significantly higher than the number of women, and the disparity increases with age:

Age group      Number involved in all crashes     Percentage men over women

                   Female                       Male

25-34           13,926                    18,492                    +33%

35-44           11,649                    15,805                    +36%

45-54           11,397                    16,505                    +45%

55-64           7,248                     11,134                    +54%

As in our previous article on crash statistics, we caution against drawing hasty conclusions. There could be more to this than meets the eye. While men and women share roughly the same number of driver's licenses, there is a presumption that men drive more, longer distances or more frequently, than women. This may explain part of the discrepancy between male and female accident rates. We still tend to believe that males are more accident-prone than females, even if such a statement may hurt some feelings.

What is not to be dismissed is the huge difference between male and female fatal crash rates in Wisconsin. Men are overwhelmingly more likely to be involved in fatal motor vehicle crashes than women, as shown in the figures below:

Age group      Number involved in fatal crashes

                   Female           Male

25-34           39                76

35-44           25                82

45-54           26                111

55-64           19                88

Can men still pretend this is only because they drive more than women? We don't think so.

If you have been hurt in a Wisconsin or Illinois car accident, contact Hupy & Abraham, S.C. today at 800-800-5676 (toll-free) or 414-223-4800 (local) for a free evaluation of your case, or send us an e-mail with your questions. Hupy & Abraham has offices in Milwaukee, Madison, Appleton in Wisconsin, and Gurnee and Bloomington in Illinois.