Statistics don’t lie. Though those on the receiving end of such stats will insist they don’t always give you the correct picture.

Either way, the General Department of Traffic at Dubai Police today released statistics that list accidents caused by men and women motorists.

It might stoke the age-old debate of who is the better/safer driver… woman or man?

According to the statistics made available by Major General Mohammed Saif Al Zafeen, the Director of the General Department of Traffic at Dubai Police, 194 accidents were cause by women since the beginning of 2010, compared to 1,720 accidents caused by men.

Women were responsible for 20 per cent of total accidents caused in the last17 months killing 14 people and injuring 323, while in the same period male drivers caused 191 deaths and 2694 injuries.

In the first five months of this year women were behind 53 accidents, accounting for only 9.78 per cent of total accidents caused, while men caused 481 accidents during the same period.

While only seven died in accidents caused by women, 47 were killed in accidents committed by men.

Last year women were involved in 141 mishaps, or 10.14% of the total accidents.

While the total number of male and female drivers on Dubai was not available, the report stated that though women are considered relatively safer on roads compared to their male counterparts, accidents caused be females have slowly increased over the past few years, according to the report.

 “Our main goal is to ensure safety of roads for all motorists and we will take violators to task without differentiating between men and women,” Major General Al Zafeen said, however, adding that most women are safer on road then men.

Recounting one of the incidents that shocked him, Major Al Zafeen said, “I saw a car moving recklessly on Al Ittihad and chased it when approached I was shocked to see a woman was driving it. She was driving so dangerously it looked as if she would hit any car at any moment. She was not adhering to any law and when stopped she justified it saying she was getting late for a party.”

He pointed out that any kind of emergency doesn’t justify reckless driving and nobody has a right to put lives of other motorists in danger.

He warned that anybody found involved in rash driving would be arrested and their vehicles would be impounded.