The Folly of Male Drivers – 2

Road Safety

Let me first plead guilty for my failure to provide the needed data to drive home the concluding part of this piece on the folly of male drivers. When I published the first part of the piece last week, I failed to provide all the necessary data . The story is the same today.

The difference however is that while I do not have available data from our clime, I have data borrowed from a piece   sourced .First it shows that in most developed climes, there is a rise in the number of female drivers. The story is perhaps the same in Nigeria.

In some clime, the number of female drivers outstrips male.I hope to confirm our data. But who is a crazier driver? I do not intend to start a world war on this subject but to debunk the notion that men are kings of the road. Truth is that men may be kings but women drivers are saner.

The data sourced from the United Kingdom  suggest that women are more skilful at the wheel. The study revealed that 57 percent of male drivers were involved in a road traffic crash compared to 44 percent of women while 46 percent of men had ‘closed call’ with a cyclist or pedestrians compared to 35 percent of women.Other reports state that 68percent of UK women had clean driving license compared to 64 percent of male drivers. The statistics single out men as having poorer records when it comes to losing concentration behind the wheel, adjusting stereo, or using phone. Even in excessive speeding and   verbally abusing other drivers, male drivers took home the gold award for irritating and bad driving behaviour such as   traffic collisions   as well as crashes with animals.

Data from an Insurance Company, Wunell revealed that out of 19000 motorists, it found that women drivers were 12 percent less likely to exceed speed limits than men and 11 percent less likely to brake hard which marks them as smoother and safer drivers.

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Ever since I got involved with the job of policing our roads, male complacency has remained a disturbing factor. Why, I do not know. But if you are in the law enforcement business then you will appreciate the point I am trying to drive home. Why male ego gets provoked only when in the company of a female, I am yet to fathom. My daily experience is that it is easier to mould a man’s driving habit when he is alone than when he is with a lady. No matter the sophistication of your arms, that man would rather assault, challenge, threaten and speak all manner of words.

Men are the most mobile because they are the breadwinners. If you take a look at the traffic violations pattern, more male drivers are apprehended daily as against female drivers although there are fewer females compared to male drivers. Although, I am yet to see research work that explains why male tendency to flout traffic rules exist, I however, know that male drivers take more risks such as excessive speed and James Bond stunts all to prove that they are masters of the wheel. If you visit clubs, the liquor addicts are mostly men and that explains why any random test conducted will show more male drink drivers, than females.

This male mobility also reflects in the crash index as more men get killed through crashes. The first six months of 2023 example speaks volumes. Between January and September,2023, more males lost their lives in crashes than females. The story, I believe, is the same in other states. Yet, despite these facts, our driving behavior especially in Lagos is marred by impatience and violent rage with less efforts being put in reducing the daily risks on the road by improving driving behavior which the Australian Journal of Social Issues, notes is critical.

What this means is that a driver must before embarking on a journey ask some vital questions such as, “am I in a proper condition and mood to drive”. The driver must worry about emotions that affect driving habits leading to unwise decisions and even road rage. According to the Land Transportation Office of the Philippines, these emotions include anger, anxiety and excitement. You must also consider your physical conditions as certain injuries and or illnesses can hamper your safety if driving. If you therefore value your life and others, you would exercise patience and caution by staying off the wheels, choosing instead to be driven by someone else or forgo the trip when you recognize your state of mind.

This is imperative for those who believe that their driving gets better only after a bottle or two, ignoring the truth that alcohol impairs your driving, affects your vision, judgment and reflexes. The same is the case with some medications. A good number of times; I have accosted drivers who would acknowledge that they are sick, dizzy, yet would insist on driving to go see a Doctor. Others would confess that they are bereaved and, in that state, indulge in driving to the village in such a mood.

In our clime, just like in other developing societies, as the number of vehicles increases, so does the number of new and inexperienced drivers, including young drivers with the penchant for taking unnecessary risks while driving. With unemployment and poverty index coupled with high illiteracy level, a good number of drivers are drop outs and are bogged by certain personal challenges that daily affects sound judgment and concentration. So, each time you drive, always remember that you share the road with other users whose state of mind you cannot comprehend. This is why I advise caution. Caution because there are always drivers who are emotionally imbalanced, road hazards such as broken-down vehicles and black spots to avoid .

This is why you must avoid all forms of distraction. You must also avoid multitasking such as phoning and driving or operating gadgets such as changing stereo. Ironically, we daily play Adams folly script by script. Just as Adam allowed the serpent to contradict God’s words and commandments with just a little lie that has bonded humanity and provided the basis for everything negative in our society, we do the same. Every time you strive to raise the bar of society’s consciousness, we rarely ask what the laws say, what we are expected to do and the rationale for such expectations.

Instead, we became critics. We forget that these laws are meant to save us. We also forget whenever these crashes occur, it takes whoever erred including innocent souls. I recall a case where one of the Lagos big boys was flagged down for driving and phoning. Rather than obey, he went on claiming that he is not aware of any law that says he cannot drive and phone. This same big boy would shiver and shudder if he were to be picked up by Police in Cotonou or the United Kingdom, he would not question them but would rather play Mr. nice.

Same contradiction is what we indulge in each time we ignore the implications of speed as a risk factor responsible for many crashes that have claimed lives. A good number of drivers believe that excessive speeding distinguishes them as expert drivers. Some would question the rationale for restricting speed to 100km/h when their machines have the capacity to do 180 or even 200km/h. Such people are conversant with the speed limit. They however make grave choices daily and like Adam, blame us for not being there or for government failure to fix the road. It is for such people that we are fine-tuning our strategies to checkmate speed induced road traffic crashes on some critical corridors preparatory to our end of year patrol operations.