[Eichhörnchen]

Let the statistics stand, by all means; I fully appreciate that raw statistics are all the insurance industry and police have to work with, but I object to the way they are used, politically, to lecture us that women are better drivers. The insurers and police will know that... statistically... men spend far more time at the wheel than women; most cab, bus and truck drivers I've seen are men, so this must influence the statistics, but all on its own it surely gives the lie to the assertion that women are better drivers. if I produced a survey showing that far fewer men injured themselves with needles during sewing-bees, I couldn't then go around telling people that this showed men to be more skilful at sewing than women. Statistics are what they are... nothing more... if they show women to be involved in fewer accidents then that's all they show. It doesn't mean that women are better drivers.

Sure, my remark about agendas was dismissive but I'm not alone in being suspicious about the uses statistics are put to: the line about 'lies' was of course a gentle adaptation of Mark Twain's famously dismissive quote, so I would have thought I was in good company there (with an American, at least). But on the science, over here we've seen two separate scientific reports mentioned recently, both about the susceptibilty of overweight women who are fit (having good blood-pressure readings etc) to heart-attack. One study said that they are at greater risk, the other said that they are not; two separate studies, two diametrically opposed results. You only have my own say-so, but I heard it on BBC Radio 4 News.

So as to whether I saw what I've said that I saw (and if I'm not to consign your remarks to the statistical pile marked "Simply Unfriendly")... I'm a person who does not drink and drive, will not drive unless I've had a good night's sleep, and would never drive if I thought medications or pain were affecting me. Sure, you only have my word for all this but, given what I just said, I've given my descriptions as explicitly and unambiguously as I can.