Whether you’ve been driving for sixty years or six months, everyone has encountered a bad driver. You may have even picked up some bad driving habits yourself – but are those habits unique to you, or are they common to everyone like you?
Let’s explore what the world’s worst drivers all have in common.
Does Your Gender Make you a Bad Driver?
Gender plays a role in determining who the worst drivers are. The Guardian reports that in the United States, “in 2021, male drivers were involved in 72.3% of fatal crashes.” In the United Kingdom male drivers “are almost three times as likely as women to be involved in accidents that kill or seriously injure pedestrians.” And in France “84% of fatal road accidents and 93% of drunk-driving crashes…are caused by men.”
These statistics tell us the gender most prone to accidents around the globe are men. But why are men the most dangerous gender behind the wheel? According to the American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety, men are more likely to commit more aggressive road rage actions than women.
Aggressive driving “is a factor in 54% of all fatal motor vehicle crashes” in the U.S.
Again the stats connect men to common car accident causes. The following chart depicts what percentage of men and women have admitted to certain aggressive driving behaviours:
Behaviours | Men | Women |
honk at another driver | 49% | 39.9% |
gesture at other drivers | 40.0% | 25.0% |
block other drivers from changing lanes | 28.6% | 19.8% |
cut off another driver | 15.5% | 8.3% |
confront another driver | 5.7% | 1.8% |
bump or ram another car | 4.3% | 1.3% |
Who Pays More for Car Insurance?
What other demographics are the worst drivers? Car insurance prices can tell us who is prone to reckless driving. According to Forbes, teenagers are consistently charged more for car insurance than any other age group because inexperienced drivers are most likely to get into an accident.
Car insurance rates decline as teens age into adulthood, and then increase a bit as they enter old age, but never to the same heights as the average 16- to 19-year-old pays, making teens the worst drivers of any age group.
Where do the Worst Drivers Live?
Some countries are worse to drive in than others, but Compare the Market found the country with the worst drivers to be Thailand.
Poor road quality was one of the contributing factors they looked at, as well as blood alcohol allowance limits, high speed limits, and the number of deaths caused by traffic, which was 32 per 100,000 people in Thailand, making it the clear choice when compared to Singapore, Switzerland, and Norway, with only 2 annual traffic deaths each.
What Makes the Worst Drivers the Worst?
From these statistics we begin to get a clear picture of the world’s worst drivers. Many factors make Thailand the worst country to drive in, and we have seen that men and teenagers have statistically high rates of traffic accidents, largely due to inexperience and aggression. Experience can be gained with time and practice, but where does aggression come from?
According to the United States Department of Transportation, “running late is one of the leading reasons given for aggressive driving, and the most frequently-cited excuse for following too quickly and passing on the right.”
So, if you’re a male teenager in Thailand thinking about driving, find you’re running late and start to feel aggravated…it’s best to just stay home.
To read the article that inspired this blog, check out The Guardian.
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