My editor sent me a strange news story yesterday which says that male drivers are more likely to die on the roads in the United States than female drivers.

She told me she was surprised that men drivers have a 77 per cent higher risk of dying in a car accident than women. Aren't they supposed to be better drivers than women, she said.

Surprising? Really? I think not, as the statistics may be skewed.

First, I'm willing to bet on the fact that there are more male drivers, not just in the US, but around the world. If there are more male drivers on the roads, naturally there will be more accidents involving men. Simple statistical probability.

Also, women are also generally "safer" drivers than men, but this is not necessarily a compliment, and it presents its own set of problems which I will elaborate on. I attribute this "kia-see" approach to driving (loosely translated as "afraid to die" in local Chinese dialect) to hormonal differences. Blame testosterone, I say.

My third point will probably peeve off some of you, but bear with me as I try to explain.

Have you ever been stuck behind a car travelling at 60km/h along the centre lane of the East Coast Parkway (ECP)? This is an expressway, remember, not a small side road.

Or had to jam on the brakes as the driver in front of you decides to swerve suddenly into your lane?

Or had your patience tested by an MPV that needs to reverse, go forward, reverse, go forward, ad infinitum, just to parallel park?

After a long day at work which sometimes brings on a pounding migraine, it doesn't take very much to fly into a bout of road rage.

But in such encounters, I try to keep my cool most of the time and wave such incidents off. But if the opportunity does present itself, I'd make it a point to cast my most livid glare at the offending motorist. The sad thing is, most of them are women.

Usually with big hair-dos, and with the steering wheel set way too close to their bodies, these motoring mama-sans seem oblivious to the world around them. I sometimes wonder if they think they are peddling a kiddie car at the fair ground.

And with testosterone coursing through our male veins, we will be more likely to do something stupid like accelerate and try to overtake the offender just to show him/her the universal hand gesture of indignation. And that's when accidents happen.

Before I get labelled as a caustic MCP (male chauvinist pig), allow me to say this: Prior to getting my driving licence eight years ago, I always thought it was insensitive and unfair that women drivers perpetually got labelled as bad drivers. That is, until I started driving.

It amazed me, though less and less over the years, how the bad drivers I had encountered have been mainly women. And this phenomenon has been reinforced through numerous discussions with my mates over a couple of beers.

Don't get me wrong, I'll readily admit that there are bad male drivers too, but the "bad driver" population seems over-represented by the fairer sex. And sometimes they can drive us over the edge.

But let me say this, women drivers still come in second to my all-time pet peeve, taxi drivers, though that's another story for another day.

Sure, chances are that many more male drivers are dying on the US roads than women, but maybe the question they should be asking is "Why?" Are they just plain reckless, or were some swerving to avoid a bad woman driver - the way I sometimes do?