Diamond reveals car park claims dominate for women while men make a big impact

The age old debate over whether men and women are better drivers may never be resolved, however new research can confirm one thing - they definitely crash differently.

Car insurance specialist, Diamond has studied data from over 400,000 accident claims over the last five years and found there are differences between the types of crashes men and women have.

Women are more likely than men to hit a parked car, have a collision in a car park and reverse into a vehicle. On the other hand, men are more likely to hit an animal, hit a crash barrier and run up or down an embankment.

The list of accidents more common with women than men is dominated by low impact collisions such as having an accident when pulling from a parked position; whereas the accidents most common with men include more high impact crashes such as hitting a tree, having a head-on collision with another vehicle and having a multi car shunt.

Diamond managing director, Dave Halliday, commented: "We were interested to investigate the types of accident claims made by men and women to see if there were any differences. It's clear that on the whole women are more likely to have low impact collisions at lower speeds in places such as car parks, whereas men are more likely to have more destructive accidents at higher speeds."

"Accidents caused by men are on average more costly than those caused by women. This was why in the past women paid lower insurance premiums than men. It’s a month since the EU Gender Directive came in and our research clearly shows there are differences between men and women."

In fact, it isn’t just accidents where men and women motorists differ. There are differences when it comes to other types of claim too; overall men are more likely to have their car stolen, suffer flood damage, have something stolen from their car and claim for fuel contamination.

Dave continued: "Men are more likely to claim for flood damage, which includes driving through a flood, and for putting the wrong fuel in their car. This could suggest that men are more careless than women."

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About Diamond:
Diamond offers its customers up to £300 of Handbag Cover and £300 of Child Seat Cover free as part of its comprehensive policy.

Diamond is a trading name of EUI Limited, and is part of the Admiral Group. Diamond writes its motor insurance business to a consortium of insurers, these being:
- Admiral Insurance Company Limited,
- Admiral Insurance (Gibraltar) Limited, and
- Great Lakes Reinsurance (UK) plc.

PR Contact:
James Carnduff
Diamond
Capital Tower
Greyfriars Road
Cardiff
CF10 3AZ
029 2043 4333
www.diamond.co.uk