Men 'more likely to be distracted while driving than women'

Date: 18/4/2011

Men are twice as likely to be distracted while driving as women, a new survey has shown.

According to research from Santander, men are two times more prone to be put off by distractions such as reading the newspaper and out of 1,000 motorists, three in ten males admitted to near misses due to being sidetracked behind the wheel.

Some one in ten men told the survey they had suffered a driving accident because they were preoccupied, compared to one in 20 women.

However, some females responding to the survey admitted to applying make-up while behind the wheel.

Commenting, Director of Santander Insurance Colin Greenhill said: "Clearly, motorists understand their risky behaviours are dangerous but as many as 75 per cent own up to taking their eyes off the road to do something other than driving."

Meanwhile, research from Direct Line and Brake recently showed that 3.3 million drivers have been in a crash with a motorist who was uninsured, with one in four collisions resulting in a fatality.

Posted by Sarah Bailey