Old RR Geezers (men) Please Stay Home When it Snows; Ladies, Don't Drive in the Rain

File this story under the title "Purdue University Researchers have too much time on their hands." All of you RR members stand up and wave your hands if you already knew that:

1) We old geezers shouldn't be allowed out on the ice in our 4-wheel drives -

2) Our driving habits as youngsters were somewhat suspect (dangerous)

3) Women drivers have no inclination their vehicle is losing traction in the rain when they have that cell phone stuck in their ear telling the girls about the latest Target boot sale.

4) Women don't crash in ice and snow because they have the good sense to stay home

Study: Genders have different driving outcomes in bad weather

While it may be open to debate whether men or women are generally safer drivers, men over age 45 are much more likely to crash their vehicles on icy and snowy roads, according to a new study.

Those risks, notable as winter approaches, are even greater if the older men are driving four-wheel-drive pickup trucks, Purdue University researcher Fred Mannering found.

In addition, the study found men under age 45 are more likely to get into serious accidents on dry roads.

Female drivers of all ages, meanwhile, lose control and crash on rain-slicked roads most often because of their failure to sense reduced friction on wet pavement, Mannering's analysis of more than 23,000 police accident reports determined. But the crash rates involving women decline on snow and ice, Mannering said.

Chicago Tribune

After being a COP for a long time, I found that the older men are out in bad weather for two reasons. They are going to pick up a wife or girlfriend that chose to go somewhere in spite of the "Blizzard" warnings, or they simply ran out of beer.

Lol...

Just who are you calling a geezer?

me!

Billy, your comments and my recent drive to Occoneechee brought back a scary memory for me. Around Jan. - Feb. 1983, while living in Greensboro, my wife left late one afternoon to drive to Raleigh in her Toyota Corrolla. Enroute, one of those once a decade ice storms hit, completely covering I-85 in ice. I was home with our two small girls when the phone rang around 6:30 pm. My wife told me she had been in an accident. She said she was ok, but she thought the NC Highway patrolman had a broken leg. She was calling from a little service station just off of I-85 at Efland, NC, where the accident had happened. As described by her and the Highway Patrolman, a car spun on the solid sheet of ice ahead of my wife and she locked her brakes, sliding into the outside guardrail. The Highway Patrolman was almost directly behind her and stopped to assist. She had just gotten into the passenger seat of the Highway Patrol car when it was struck from behind by another vehicle that lost control, shoving the Highway patrol car into my wife's stopped car and totaling what the Highway Patrolman said had been a driveable vehicle. The officer was injured and couldn't move. He ordered my wife out of the car and down the embankment away from the wreckage while he radioed for help. The poor fellow's luck only got worse. The ambulance carrying him to the hospital skidded off the road on the ice and wrecked. I drove fromGreensboro toEfland with my two girls in my station wagon. Even at 15-20 mph, I could hardly hold it straight. Even though the road has been widened and the curve eliminated on i-85, I could still see the little service station where my wife waited that icy night after she called. That Highway Patrolman was a hero in my opinion. Hehad only my wife's safety at heartand had put himself in harm's way on her behalf. Later, he even chewed out our State Farm Auto Insurance agent who was waffling on the damage claim and testified that my wife's car suffered no damage until hit by the Highway Patrol car. State Farm was more interested in who was responsible for damage to the guardrail. I don't care what anyone says, I hold the NC Highway Patrol in the highest regard and know that driving on solid sheets of ice is not gender related when it comes to wrecks.