Young Women More Likely to Die in Car Crash than Male Counterparts

A new study suggests that women may be more at risk to die in car accidents than men.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which looked at how age and gender affect car crash victims, shows that females may be more vulnerable to injury and even death than men.

The study found that women drivers anywhere from 21 to 30 years old have a 25.9 percent higher risk of dying in a car crash than men the same age.

The NHTSA reports that female passengers this age also die in greater numbers. In fact, 29.2 percent have a higher risk of dying in a car crash than male counterparts.

The Detroit News notes that these statistics may be due in part to the fact that women are smaller than men.

However, the study shows that starting at age 35 and up, men start to see a change in this pattern. From age 35 to 70, the risk of dying in a car crash among men and women drivers becomes equal, according to the study, and women drivers have a 1.4 lower risk than men of dying in a car accident during the 65-74 age bracket.

"Young adult females are more fragile than males of the same age, but later in life women are less frail than their male contemporaries," NHTSA said in the study, according to USA Today. 

Age in general, however, puts all drivers at risk. "Occupants' fatality risk, given similar physical impacts, grows by 3 percent or slightly more for each year that they get older, starting at about 21," NHTSA said, according to the study.