First for Whom?

We listened to the advertisements and noted what they said.
Then our friends said that they are not so sure and some - including the ladies - said that they are not so sure either that it is all correct, after all there are some of the ladies who would not trust another woman behind the wheel.

So we wondered and have to ask the following:
If, by example, 70% of all accidents are caused by men and 30% of all accidents are caused by women, it would mean one thing.
But if the 70% of men are only 10% of all the male drivers and the 30% percent of women are 20% of all the female drivers, it would mean something totally different.

Within context, and related to the base group from where the stats are drawn, the significance shifts.

According to Stats SA:

Male drivers accounted for 80.6% of collisions in South Africa in 1998 as against 19.4% involving female drivers. But only 62.5% of all accidents involved motor car drivers, the rest being bakkies, panel vans, light delivery vehicles and minibus/kombi type vehicles. (Report 71-61-01, 1998)

When you consider that the drivers of the non-motor vehicles would invariably be male and driving in a professional capacity for hours at a time and deduct them from the total, you will end up with the following:

37.5% - non-motor vehicle
62.5% - motor vehicle
62.5% minus 19.4% female drivers results in 43.1% male drivers, or 2.22 times more men than women.

Now, how many more men than women are on the roads? 2.22 or 2.5 or three times as many? What is the percentage male/female drivers?

We have sent an email to First for Women as we could not locate the stats on their
website, requesting the stats that they speak of and hope to get a reply soon, just so that we can be sure.

After a week they have not yet responded, maybe they lost the first mail.

UPDATE
We received the following mail in response:

From : Corina Koumendacos Sent : Monday, April 24, 2006 10:44 AM Subject : FW: question on ffw website To Whom It May Concern:

We have statistical evidence that firstly women are involved in up to 20% less accidents than men. Secondly, in respect of motor vehicle accident repair costs, the average repair cost involved in repairing an accident damaged motor vehicle that was driven by a woman is up to 35% less than one driven by a man.
These statistics were ascertained from a data base of over 500 000 insured individuals.
We are certain the above clarifies matters.
Kind regards
Corina Koumendacos
Executive

To which we asked the question:
Could you please let me know what the percentage difference is between the male/fermale drivers to which this 20% relate as I believe it would be significant to the reading and analysis of the statistics.

We await developments.

UPDATE
It has been quite a while now but still no answer, maybe the mail got lost again...