EDIT: The EU ruling has confirmed that gender cannot be taken into account. So women’s insurance WILL rise in December 2012.
I posted recently about the possible hike in women’s motor insurance premiums.
Someone sent me a link to the Coventry Telegraph and a news article involving comments from local driving instructor, Sadhna Patel.
Ms Patel says:
I don’t think it’s fair because I have male learner drivers and they are much more prone to accidents than my female drivers.
The women I teach are much more reasonable and safer on the roads during lessons – they will think twice before a manoeuvre and they are more wary of what else is going on around them.
But it gets even better. Ms Patel’s justification for this idiotic comment include such evidence as:
I totally disagree with it. I’m sure other women will disagree.
The boys pass too, however, I did have one who passed just two weeks ago and his mum bought him a car the next day, and he crashed it. It was a complete write-off.
So, based on the fact that women don’t like the idea and she’s had one pupil write his car off, the entire country operates in an identical pattern, does it?
It’s worth pointing out to Ms Patel that it is a scientifically proven fact that women’s spatial awareness is not as good as that of men. This in itself leads to situations which can lead to accidents – unfortunately not always involving the person with the poor awareness. And there is an old saying which may just be referring to this when you think carefully…
Women may not have as many accidents as men, but they cause a lot more!
Of course, it’s OK for Ms Patel to say bad things about male drivers (and for the Coventry Telegraph to print them), but not many newspapers get away with saying things about women. And that’s where the problem is.
SOME women are more dangerous than SOME men. Older ones especially.
And I’ve written in the past about texting whilst driving (and the even more frightening variants – tweeting and using Facebook). Whenever I see anyone texting when I’m on lessons, it is nearly always the women.
The article concludes with the indignant outpourings of another woman (and yes, the need to point out she is “a single mum” who is going to University to study Law – go figure – is not wasted).
Insurance premiums should start high (or fairly high) for everyone and then come down (or go astronomical) depending on claims. It should not be gender specific. Age should definitely be a factor. But not gender.