Research Says Keep Your 4x4 Trucks Away from Older Men
We found this article and thought it was pretty funny, and a bit silly. No word as to whether the older men were the only one's in their family that would risk braving the elements to do the shopping, get to work, or go out and rescue another friend or family member. Also no word as to whether this research was funded by taxpayer dollars.
Older Men Driving 4x4 Pickups More Likely to Crash In Winter
By Jim Hilkevitch, Chicago Tribune
(as printed in the Salt Lake Tribune)
Dec. 4, 2011
While it may be open to debate whether men or women are generally safer drivers, men over age 45 are much more likely to crash their vehicles on icy and snowy roads, according to a new study.
Those risks, notable as winter approaches, are even greater if the older men are driving four-wheel-drive pickup trucks, Purdue University researcher Fred Mannering found. It could reflect a false sense of safety, he said.
"There may be a sense of invulnerability with four-wheel drive trucks leading the drivers to not slow down as much as they should," Mannering said in an interview. "The reality is that four-wheel drive gets you up to speed faster in snow and ice, but it doesn’t help you stop any quicker."
In addition, men under age 45 are more likely to get into serious accidents on dry roads, perhaps because of overconfidence, the study of single-vehicle accidents involving Indiana drivers indicates.
Female drivers of all ages, meanwhile, lose control and crash on rain-slicked roads most often because of their failure to sense reduced friction on wet pavement, Mannering’s analysis of more than 23,000 police accident reports determined. But the crash rates involving women decline on snow and ice, Mannering said.
"I was somewhat surprised by the findings," said Mannering, who is associate director for research at Purdue’s Center for Road Safety. He was assisted in the study by Abigail Morgan, a doctoral student at the university.
The finding that not all groups of Indiana drivers underestimate the dangers equally as pavement becomes slicker is probably representative of drivers nationwide, he said.
"I expected the serious accident rate for men younger than 45 to be higher across the board in all road conditions," said Mannering, a civil engineering professor who studies the cause and effect of traffic accidents.
"My theory is that women tend to drive at the same speed regardless whether the road is wet or dry, failing to compensate for the reduced friction. But interestingly, women’s crash rates do go down on snow and ice," he said.
Understanding the conditions in which severe accidents are most likely to occur is the key to reducing serious injury and deaths, Mannering said. A public service announcement campaign would help dampen some of the overconfidence that drivers apparently feel, perhaps partly as a result of automobile manufacturers’ advertising about traction-control and other advanced safety systems.
An earlier study conducted by Mannering found that there was no major decline in serious-injury accidents in the 1990s when anti-lock brakes and air bags became standard equipment on vehicles. His hunch was that people drove faster or more easily became distracted, perhaps lulled into feeling safer thanks to the safety technology.
The new study data showed that younger men have a 21 percent higher likelihood of suffering severe injury while driving on dry roads than on wet roads, and a 72 percent higher likelihood on a dry road than on snowy and icy roads.
Men over 45 are 5.5 times more likely to be severely hurt or killed in crashes while driving on snow and ice than on wet surfaces, the study found. Older men driving pickup trucks were 81 percent more likely to be involved in serious accidents on snow and ice than older men driving other types of vehicles, the study said.
Women younger than 45 were nearly three times more likely to get into serious-injury accidents on wet roads than on dry roads, while women over 45 were more than four times more likely, the analysis found.
"The results of this study suggest the need to look more carefully at the process by which drivers assess and react to weather-induced road surface changes," the study concludes.
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