Galway women drivers show that joke is on male motorists

Date Published: 30-Apr-2012

By Dara Bradley

The driving skills of the fairer sex have been the source of many chauvinistic jokes over the years but new research appears to shatter the stereotype that women are worse drivers than men!

When it comes to Galway drivers men are far more likely than women to accumulate penalty points, which suggests women are better drivers, or better at not getting caught out breaking the Rules of the Road.

A new release from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows more than two-thirds of all penalty points issued in Galway are accumulated by men.

The most up-to-date data, which relates to 2010, shows that 6,833 of the 10,028 penalty points issued in Galway were issued to male drivers and just 3,195 of them were issued to women.

But before Tribeswomen get ahead of themselves crowing about their skills behind the wheel, they should note that women drivers in Galway are among the ‘worst’ women drivers in the country – Galway’s female drivers are among the top-five counties for accumulated penalty points.

Regardless of gender, speeding is the most common offence for which Galway drivers male and female accumulate penalty points.

The next most common offence for both male and female drivers in Galway is driving while using a mobile phone: almost 1,800 Galway drivers picked up penalty points in 2010 for driving while using a mobile phone.

Meanwhile, the Transport Omnibus report 2009-2010, released this week, shows that marginally more cars fail the NCT on the initial visit.

The statistics for 2010 show that 19,034 cars passed the NCT test at the first time of asking at the Galway Test Centre.

A total of 19,922 failed the test on the initial examination but the vast majority of these – 17,347 – pass the re-test.

Of the 38,956 tests and re-tests of cars at Galway’s NCT centre that year, 36,381 passed at the first or second time of asking, which is in keeping with the national figures.