A study of sex differences on road crash severity

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the factors affecting the severity of urban crashes among male and female drives. Traffic crashes occurred in Tehran, Iran during the year 2009 were utilized in this research. The observations were divided into two groups based on driver's gender. Two crash severity models were estimated for each group using binary logit model in which dependent variable included damage only crashes and injury/fatal crashes. Pseudo-elasticity values were calculated to better compare the male and female drivers and understand the exact effect of each variable. The results showed that factors such as increased driver's age, non-educated drivers, weekend, nighttime and intersections have increased the crash severity in both male and female drivers. Among human factors which affect the crash severity, violating the rules, speeding, unnecessary haste and diversion to left, increased the crash severity in males, while lack of driving experience, loss of control and vehicle mechanical defect increased the females' crash severity. Furthermore, accidents involving male drivers were more severe in clear and foggy weather conditions, while female drivers were observed to have more severe crashes in rainy weather. Significant differences in contributing factors to severity of crashes in male and female drivers prove that discrete policies for these two groups of drivers should be adopted. The obtained results suggested that in order to improve the safety of roads and to encourage drivers to obey driving laws, educational programs about males' driving habits should be adopted.