Are men or women safer on the road? One government claims to have the answer

It’s a perennial debate between the sexes – who are the better drivers, women or men?

Now it appears that the French have the answer. For a new road safety campaign launched across the Channel is urging men to ‘drive like a woman’ to reduce the number of deaths on the road.

The slogan ‘conduisez comme une femme’ is appearing as part of an initiative by Victims and Citizens, a safety awareness organisation. It has said the stereotype of women being inferior drivers is outdated and wrong.

Official French government statistics reveal a stark gender disparity in driving safety – men are responsible for 84 per cent of fatal road accidents and 93 per cent of drink-driving incidents.

After peaking in 1972 with 18,000 deaths, improvements in education, technology, and speed enforcement had reduced the annual death toll to around 3,000, still nearly double Britain’s.

But there has been a rise in recent years. A survey by Vinci Autoroutes across 11 European countries found French drivers admitted being the most aggressive, with 67 per cent confessing to swearing at other motorists and 91 per cent regularly exceeding speed limits.

Florence Guillaume, head of the government’s road safety agency, noted that men assess risk differently than women. ‘Men often try to demonstrate their strength through their driving,’ she added.

A television advertisement features a father telling his son: ‘You don’t have to do what people expect a man to do.’