Men get into more car accidents than women, and by a wide margin when the crash is serious or deadly. Women drive fewer miles, take fewer risks behind the wheel, and are cited far less often, yet they face a higher chance of injury when a crash does happen. The honest answer to who causes more car accidents, men or women, is less about gender than about how many miles someone drives, how old they are, and how they behave on the road.
Here is what the current data actually shows, and what it means if you have been hurt in a crash in Illinois.
Do Men or Women Get in More Car Accidents? The Short Answer
Men are involved in more crashes overall and dominate the fatal-crash numbers. The figures quoted most often, roughly 6.1 million a year for male drivers against about 4.4 million for women, count drivers involved in police-reported crashes, not crashes anyone was found at fault for. Read them as exposure, not blame. Men also do more of the driving, which is a big part of why their raw totals run higher.
Where it gets interesting is per mile driven. Men cover a larger share of the miles on the road, so once you adjust for mileage their advantage in overall crash counts shrinks and women edge slightly ahead in minor collisions. The fatal-crash gap does not shrink. Two things can both be true at once here:
- Men are in more crashes and far more fatal ones
- Women are overrepresented in minor fender-benders and are hurt more severely when serious crashes occur
How Many Car Accidents Do Men Cause?
Exposure is the first piece. Men simply spend more time behind the wheel. Federal Highway Administration survey data put male drivers at about 16,550 miles a year versus roughly 10,142 for women. Those figures come from an older national travel survey and the gap has narrowed since, but men still out-drive women. More miles means more chances for something to go wrong, so a portion of the male crash total is just math.
The rest is behavior. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) reports that male drivers are more likely to speed, skip seat belts, and drive after drinking, and those choices push men toward the more severe end of the crash spectrum. That pattern holds across nearly every age group.
Gender and Fatal Crashes: The 2024 Numbers
The clearest gap is in deaths. According to the IIHS, 28,385 males died in motor vehicle crashes in 2024, compared with 10,764 females. That is more than 17,000 additional male deaths in a single year, roughly a 2.6-to-1 ratio. Male crash deaths have outnumbered female crash deaths every year for decades.
The long-term trend is slowly shifting. Since 1975, male crash deaths have fallen by about 13%, while female crash deaths are down closer to 9%. Men still account for the large majority of people killed on the road, but the historical gap has narrowed as driving patterns have changed.
Why Men Are Involved in More Serious Crashes
Risk-taking is the throughline. IIHS data for 2024 shows the behavioral split plainly:
- Speeding was a factor in 20% of fatal crashes involving male drivers, versus 12% for female drivers
- 34% of fatally injured male drivers had a blood alcohol concentration at or above 0.08%, compared to 24% of female drivers
- Men are less likely to wear seat belts, which raises the odds that a crash turns fatal
- Aggressive habits like tailgating, weaving, and road rage show up more often among younger male drivers
Those same behaviors drive most of the serious cases we see. Speeding, drunk driving, and distracted driving are among the most common causes of severe injury crashes in Illinois, regardless of who is behind the wheel.
How Many Car Accidents Do Women Cause?
Women are involved in plenty of crashes, but the profile is different. Because they drive fewer miles, their overall totals are lower, and their crashes skew toward minor collisions rather than high-speed or impaired-driving wrecks. Per mile driven, women are slightly more likely to be in a low-speed fender-bender, often in parking lots and at intersections.
The harder truth is what happens to women in a serious crash. Research consistently finds that, for a collision of similar severity, women are more likely than men to be injured and killed. A 2025 study in the Journal of Safety Research, using Spanish crash data, found women were substantially more likely to suffer minor, serious, and severe injuries than men in comparable crashes, while men were more likely to walk away uninjured. U.S. research points the same direction: one widely cited analysis found women roughly 73% more likely to be seriously injured in frontal crashes, and another found women about 17% more likely to be killed in a crash of comparable severity.
Part of the reason is design. For years, federal crash tests relied primarily on dummies modeled on the average male body, so many vehicles were optimized to protect men. Differences in seating position, vehicle size, and physiology leave women more exposed to leg, chest, and spinal injuries in a wreck they did not cause.
Why Age Matters More Than Gender
Strip away the stereotypes and age does more to predict a crash than gender. Two groups stand out.
Teen and young-adult drivers take the most risks and have the least experience to manage them. Distraction, speeding, impaired driving, and overconfidence combine to give drivers in their teens and early twenties some of the highest crash rates on the road. Young male drivers in particular are heavily overrepresented in fatal car accidents.
At the other end, some drivers over 65 face rising risk as vision, reaction time, and mobility decline, sometimes compounded by medications. Age alone does not make someone unsafe, but the physical changes that come with it can affect how quickly a driver reacts to a hazard.
What Gender Means for an Illinois Car Accident Claim
For your case, gender statistics are background noise. Illinois law decides fault based on the specific facts of the crash, not on which driver was a man or a woman. What matters is the evidence: the police report, the physical damage, witness accounts, and any traffic violations.
Illinois uses a modified comparative negligence rule. You can still recover money if you were partly at fault, but your compensation is reduced by your share of the blame, and you recover nothing if you are found more than 50% at fault (735 ILCS 5/2-1116). Because insurers often try to shift blame to hold that number down, the way fault gets assigned can decide the entire outcome.
Timing matters too. In most Illinois injury cases you have two years from the date of the crash to file a claim (735 ILCS 5/13-202), and a wrongful-death claim after a fatal crash generally runs on the same two-year track. One exception can end a case before it starts: if the at-fault driver was working for a city, county, transit agency, or other local government unit, the deadline drops to one year from the date of injury (745 ILCS 10/8-101). A crash with a municipal truck or a transit bus can be time-barred a full year before the ordinary deadline, so the identity of the other driver’s employer is worth pinning down early. Waiting can also cost you the evidence and the leverage you need. A Illinois car accident lawyer can gather the proof, deal with the insurance company, and push back when the other side tries to pin an unfair share of fault on you. If your crash happened in the city, a Chicago car accident lawyer at 844-SEE-MIKE can review what happened for free.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do men or women get in more car accidents?
Men get into more car accidents overall and cause far more fatal crashes. Women drive fewer miles and are involved in more minor, low-speed collisions, but they face a higher risk of injury when a serious crash happens.
Which gender causes more fatal car accidents?
Men. In 2024 the IIHS recorded 28,385 male crash deaths compared to 10,764 female deaths, roughly a 2.6-to-1 ratio. Male crash deaths have outnumbered female deaths every year for decades, largely due to more miles driven and riskier behavior.
Why are women injured more severely in car accidents?
Even in crashes of similar force, women are more likely to be hurt. Vehicle safety systems were long designed around male crash-test dummies, and differences in seating position, vehicle size, and physiology leave women more exposed to serious leg, chest, and spinal injuries.
Do men or women get more traffic tickets and DUIs?
Men, by a wide margin. Male drivers are cited more often for speeding and are far more likely to be involved in alcohol-related crashes. In 2024, 34% of fatally injured male drivers had a BAC at or above 0.08%, compared to 24% of female drivers.
Does age or gender matter more for crash risk?
Age is often the stronger factor. Teen and young-adult drivers have the highest crash rates because of inexperience and risk-taking, and crash risk can rise again for some older drivers as reflexes and vision change.
Does gender affect an Illinois car accident claim?
No. Illinois assigns fault based on the facts of the crash, not the driver’s gender. Under the state’s modified comparative negligence rule, your recovery drops with your share of fault and is barred if you are more than 50% at fault (735 ILCS 5/2-1116).
Contact 844-SEE-MIKE After an Illinois Car Accident
No matter who was driving, a serious crash can leave you with medical bills, lost income, and a totaled car. The team at 844-SEE-MIKE has spent years helping injured people across Illinois hold the right party accountable and pursue the compensation they need to recover. We handle the insurance company, gather the evidence, and focus on the facts of your case instead of tired stereotypes about men or women drivers.
You pay nothing unless we recover money for you. Contact 844-SEE-MIKE anytime for a free, no-pressure consultation, and we will walk you through your options.
This article is general information about car accident data and Illinois law, not legal advice. For guidance on your specific situation, speak with a licensed attorney.
