Truth to a stereotype? Women drivers are more likely to be involved in an accident, scientists found after analysing data from 6.5million car crashes. |
Women drivers are more likely to be involved in an accident, according to scientists. Researchers looked at 6.5million car crashes and found a higher than expected number of accidents between two female drivers. They also discovered that women have a tough time negotiating crossroads, T-junctions and slip roads. The results are even more surprising given that men spend more time behind the wheel than women. On average, men drive 60 percent of the time, and women 40 percent. Michael Sivak, of the University of Michigan, said: 'The results indicate that in certain crash scenarios, male-to-male crashes tend to be under-represented and female-to-female crashes tend to be over-represented.' Dr Sivak and his colleague Brandon Schoettle studied data from a nationally representative sample of police-reported crashes in the US from 1988 to 2007. They had expected to find that accidents involving two male drivers would make up 36.2 percent of all crashes, while female/female accidents would account for 15.8 percent and male/female 48 percent. Instead, they discovered that accidents involving two women drivers were 20.5 percent, while male/male crashes were much lower at 31.9 percent. Accidents involving male and female drivers stood at 47.6 percent, as expected. The scientists also found that women were more likely than men to crash at a junction - their cars are often hit on the left-hand side when trying to make a right-hand turn, and vice versa. Dr Sivak said this might be due to height difference between the sexes. He said: 'There are three dominant driver-related factors, including the probability of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, one's own driving skills and the driving skills of the other driver involved.' (Read by Lee Hannon. Lee Hannon is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
科學(xué)家稱,女司機更容易出交通事故。 研究人員查看了650萬個車禍案例,發(fā)現(xiàn)雙方都是女司機時發(fā)生的交通事故比預(yù)想的要多。 他們還發(fā)現(xiàn),女司機駕車通過十字路口、丁字路口和支路比較困難。 考慮到男性駕車時間比女性更長,這一研究結(jié)果更令人吃驚。平均來看,60%的時間是男性開車, 40%的時間是女性開車。 密歇根大學(xué)的邁克爾?西瓦克說:“研究結(jié)果表明,在特定的車禍場景下,男司機和男司機相撞的事故不夠具有代表性,而女司機和女司機相撞的事故則很常見?!?/p> 西瓦克博士和他的同事布蘭頓?舒奧托研究了1988年到2007年警方報道的全美具有代表性的車禍案例資料。 他們本以為所看到的兩個男司機相撞的事故會占所有交通事故的36.2%,而兩個女司機相撞的事故會占15.8%,男女司機相撞的事故會占48%。 結(jié)果他們發(fā)現(xiàn)兩個女司機相撞的事故占了20.5%,兩個男司機相撞的事故比例則比預(yù)想的低得多,為31.9%。 男女司機相撞的事故比例為47.6%,和預(yù)想的差不多。 科學(xué)家還發(fā)現(xiàn),和男司機相比,女司機在交叉路口撞車的可能性更高,她們的車經(jīng)常在試圖向右拐的時候在左側(cè)被撞上,反之亦然。 西瓦克博士說,這可能是由男女身高的差異造成的。 他說:“跟司機有關(guān)的三大主要車禍原因包括:在錯誤的時間出現(xiàn)在錯誤的地點、本人的駕駛技術(shù),以及對方司機的駕駛技術(shù)?!?/p> 相關(guān)閱讀 (中國日報網(wǎng)英語點津 陳丹妮 編輯:馮明惠) |
Vocabulary: negotiate: to successfully get over or past a difficult part on a path or route 通過,越過(險要路段) slip road: a road used for driving onto or off a motorway/freeway(進出高速公路的)支路,岔道 scenario: a description of how things might happen in the future(場景;設(shè)想;方案;預(yù)測) under-represented: 代表性不足 over-represented: 代表人數(shù)超出比例的 |