A study conducted at the Center for Road Safety at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, finds gender differences in driving behavior during different types of weather. The results of the research found that men younger than 45 were 21 percent more likely to be severely injured in auto accidents while driving on dry roads as opposed to wet roads. Younger men were 72 percent more likely to be severely injured on a dry road than on snowy or icy roads. Older men were 5.5 times more likely to be injured on snowy or icy roads than on dry roads.
Both younger and older women were more likely to be injured on wet, snowy, or icy roads than they were on dry roads. Fred Mannering, Charles Pankow Professor of Civil Engineering at Purdue, said, “Younger men may be tempering some of their aggressive driving behavior to compensate for the compromised roadway surface under adverse weather conditions but they may be underestimating the severe crash risk in good weather conditions.” He added, “The data might be used to give women drivers a heads up that they have to be really careful on wet pavements.”