BBC News Online: Business

Women better drivers says watchdog

Women are better drivers than men according to the Advertising Standards Authority

According to a new judgement from the ASA, women are better drivers than men.

Members of the public (it is not clear what sex they were) objected to a Diamond Car Insurance poster.

But the ASA rejected the complaints that the advert was not backed up with proof that women were better drivers than men.

Better drivers

The advert pictured a man in a hairdressing salon having his hair coloured, and stated: "Some men will try anything to get cheaper car insurance!"

"Diamond only do car insurance for women because women are better drivers."

In response to the complaint, Diamond Car insurance provided a range of statistics which proved that women are better drivers.

The ASA accepted its statistics, which showed that women had fewer accidents and smaller insurance claims than men.

Diamond provided 108 sample quotes from 12 competitors' websites which demonstrated that women were charged lower insurance premiums than men.

The ASA concluded: "In the context of the advertisement, readers were likely to interpret the claim to mean that women had fewer accidents and made fewer claims."

"The advertisers had substantiated the interpretation of the claim which was acceptable."