Who's The Better Driver?

When it comes to driving, guess who's causing the most accident? It's probably not who you think.

It's men in 4-wheel drives. At least when it comes to driving on our winter roads.

A new study out of Purdue University looked at more than 23,000 accident reports covering all weather conditions, including dry roads; wet, rainy roads; and slick, snowy and icy roads. The researchers involved in this study found out a few surprising things. Although this won't solve the big debate as to who's the best overall type of driver, it did find out that different ones of us get in more accidents depending on what the conditions are like.

Younger men, under 45, do much worse when the roads are dry. That's probably because they can get overconfident and simply drive too fast. But when the roads are wet, it's women who have the most accidents. Researchers think this is because they fail to sense the reduced friction on the wet roads.

But probably not too surprising to anyone driving around during a snow storm here, it's the men over 45 who are much more likely to crash when the roads are slick and icy. As a matter of fact, they are five times more likely to have an accident. And if they are driving a pickup truck, most likely with 4-wheel drive, then they also are the biggest hazard on the road. This is probably because they get overconfident in how well they can get past slower non-4-wheel drive vehicles that are being cautious. But they also forget that just because they have more traction when moving, they stop just like everyone else and end up in more overall accidents.

So, the bottom line for all of us---slow down.