Women and men drive damage just as often

Women claim damages on average as often as men. However, men are more expensive with an average amount of damage that is 14% higher than for women. For both sexes, the vast majority of damages occur during the execution of special maneuvers. Damage to the windscreen is also relatively often claimed on car insurance. This is evidenced by an analysis of the claim behavior on thousands of car policies of the comparison website hoyhoy.nl.

Men and women claim damages just as often. Hoyhoy.nl calculated the number of claims per sex for the total number of insured persons. This shows that in relative terms women only submit 0.3% more damage than men. However, men are slightly more expensive for their insurer: on average they claim 300 euros more per claim than women. The average damage amount of all damages for women is 2,075 euros per damage. For men, this is 2,370 euros, which is more than 14% higher. According to Jolanda van Es, spokesperson for hoyhoy.nl, a stereotype is being disproved. "Many people think that women drive more damage, but we can not confirm that. The difference in the number of claims is minimal, "says Van Es.

Most common damages
By far the largest part of all damage claims submitted by customers of hoyhoy.nl arises from special maneuvers. These claims for damages account for 24.8% of the total. In the second place, diamond damage is 18.2%. Rear-end collisions come in third with 16.2%, followed by colliding, skidding, getting out of the way or hitting the water (11.9%).

The top 5 most claimed damages have the same order in both sexes, but there are a number of differences in the percentages. For example, men are more likely to have a rear-end collision and women claim faster damage to the windscreen.

Special maneuvers
When performing special maneuvers, something goes relatively often, both for men and women. The following operations are covered by special maneuvers:

- driving away from parking position
- reverse driving
- drive into a driveway
- drive up the road from an exit
- return
- drive up the through lane from an insertion lane
- drive onto the exit lane from the through road
- change lanes

The amounts that are claimed for damages that occur when performing special maneuvers, however, differ per sex: men are more than 200 euros more expensive.

Collisions
Rear-end collisions are more often claimed by men: they account for a 17.4% share of the total. In women, the share of rear-end collisions is only 14.3%. The damage amount for these clashes is again higher among the men here, they claim an average of 3.226 euro after a collision. Women, on the other hand, claim an average of 2,494 euros: a difference of just over 730 euros.

Windshield damage is only reimbursed with a WA + or all-risk insurance policy. A top 5 of most claimed damages on WA- insurances therefore does not contain any window damage. Instead, collisions with fixed objects appear on the fifth spot. If only WA + and allrisk policies are looked at, then the top 5 will also change: windscreen damage is clearly at number 1 here.

Death risk higher in men
Men not only claim higher damages than women, they also have more risk of a fatal accident. This is shown by additional combined data from the Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) and the Stichting Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Verkeersveiligheid (SWOV). For almost all age categories, on average more men than women die in car accidents. In the most recently measured period, from 2011 to 2015, an average of 1.9 men and 1.1 women died per billion kilometers driven. What can also be seen from the data is that traffic has become a lot safer. The number of fatalities decreased each period.

Insurance Premiums
Although men claim higher damages, car insurers apply the same premiums for men and women. "Logically," says Jolanda van Es. "Discrimination on the basis of sex is not permitted by law. Incidentally, we do see differences in premiums per age group. Young people up to 24 and older people from 75 pay relatively more premiums because they have a higher risk profile than the middle group. "