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Per the article below, I'm gonna go waaaay out on a limb and make a comment about something that's been on my mind for a coupla-three years. I have a number of Parkie male friends, and with only one exception, I'm scared to drive with 'em (I won't say who that one is, so ALL will now think I'm referring to THEM) <grin>. They seem unaware how poorly they drive at different times of the day ) < their "off times>. I've mentioned the problem up front, with several of the fellas and got the exact same reaction... "I'M a VERY safe driver!" <indignantly> HEY FELLAS - the above comes from love... and the desire to see you uninjured and alive for many years to come. (READ ON) Barb Mallut [log in to unmask] ------------------------------------- (June 20, 1998 2:04 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - If you must drive, don't drink testosterone. That stuff could be the most dangerous substance being abused on the highways today. Either that, or men are just awful drivers. Maybe they're not equipped for handling big, fast, internal combustion vehicles. It turns out that male drivers are -- statistically -- a greater menace than female drivers by far to everybody on the road, including themselves. Even when they're only walking. Men account for little more than 50 percent of licensed drivers and women for just more than 49 percent -- close to an even split -- but the risk of being involved in a fatal crash is three times higher for males. Consider that in 1996, the most recent year analyzed by the Department of Transportation, of drivers involved in fatal crashes, males numbered 41,010 and females 14,145. That's 74 percent male. Of the drivers killed in those crashes, it was 17,822 male and 6,632 female. That's 73 percent male. When they're not actually at the wheel, however, men and women die in vehicles at almost exactly the same rate. In 1996, the number of male passengers killed was 5,627 (51 percent) and the number of female passengers who lost their lives was 5,487 (49 percent). It's another story when it's a matter of alleged control. Pedaling bicycles, the number killed that year was 761. And 653 were male -- about 86 percent. On motorcycles, 1,965 men were killed and only 195 women. Of course, there are lots more men than women riding motorcycles and also more peddling bicycles, apparently. That could have a lot to do with the death rate -- although neither the Federal Highway Administration nor the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has a breakdown of bike use by gender. When males are behind the wheel of cars, trucks and buses, too, there are other factors besides hormones involved in their higher fatalities. They drive more. It's a curious fact that adult men tend to be the driver three-fourths of the time they are in a vehicle, while adult women take the driver's seat just over half the time they go for a ride. The average male driver covered 14,560 miles in 1995, the average woman driver 8,769. Men also are considered more likely to be driving at night and under other hazardous driving conditions. Still, the 63 percent of total travel that's driven by the men doesn't come up to their 73 percent death rate. Here's a reason: Of the men involved in fatal crashes, 28 percent had blood-alcohol concentrations of .01 or greater (meaning some alcoholic drinking) compared to 15 percent of women. And another 21 percent of men in these accidents had blood-alcohol readings of .10 or greater (meaning they were legally drunk) compared to 11 percent of women drivers. "Proportionally, twice as many males were legally drunk as females," says Alan Hoskins, a statistician with the National Safety Council. "Among younger male drivers especially, the combination of two substances, alcohol and testosterone, is pretty deadly." That seems to be true, too, for men on foot. Out of the 5,412 pedestrians struck and killed by vehicles in 1996, take a wild guess how many were male. It was 3,758, or 69 percent. Is it conceivable there were that many more men walking around? Or don't the numbers suggest they were, typically, being more aggressive and risk-taking and were, sometimes, drunk? OK, but what about the possibility of PMS road behavior? Don't at least some women go through intersections screaming and throwing plates every 28 days or so? A female spokesperson for the Federal Highway Administration had this to say, frostily, about that: "No comment." Well you neve