Behind the Wheel

Are women better drivers than men?

Well, a recent Los Angeles Times computer analysis of the driving records of 179,000 Californians indicated that women generally are much safer drivers than men their age.

Sixteen-year-old girls had a ticket rate lower than boys their age. Although the worst drivers were 18-year-olds of both sexes, women tended to have fewer accidents than men at other age levels.

Hardly portents of evil.

Except to Jon Winokur of Pacific Palisades, author of “The Portable Curmudgeon,” “A Curmudgeon’s Garden of Love” and clearly California’s reigning grouch.

“Portents of evil? Portents? They already are,” he grumbled. “Only last week, on Olympic in West Los Angeles, I saw a woman driving while talking on the telephone and putting on her makeup.

“That’s a quinella I’ve not see before. I can only presume she was driving with her knees.”

Meanwhile, back at the record books.

They list one English woman who passed a driving test after 40 attempts, but had spent so much money on driving lessons she couldn’t afford a car. Then there was the Arkansas lady who passed her written test after 104 tries.

But hold the chortles.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world’s worst driver is a Texan who in 1966 received 10 tickets, drove on the wrong side of the road four times, was involved in four hit-and-runs and caused six other accidents within 20 minutes.

Quite a guy.