Damsel in distress

Rural drivers are twice as likely to stop and help a stranded female motorist, compared with their urban counterparts, according to tyre firm Semperit Ireland, who conducted a roadside experiment to find out if Irish drivers really would stop to help an obviously “distressed” lady.

Earlier this year, a whopping 92% of male drivers told a survey conducted by Semperit that they would stop and help a female motorist change a wheel. But Semperit’s real life experiments tell a different story.

Starting in Dublin, they set up a real-life “damsel in distress” on the north and south side of the city and waited to see what would happen. The results confirmed what many already suspect: suffer a breakdown in Dublin and you’re on your own! On the south side of the city, in the space of an hour just FIVE people pulled over to help. On the north side, meanwhile, five good Samaritans stopped to help in the space of half an hour. The “stopping” rates in Dublin were on average 1 in 70 vehicles that passed. The “damsel in distress”, 23 year old student Ailbhe Byrne decamped to two sites in the “country”: first on the N7 just outside Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, and secondly, in Moate, Co. Westmeath.

The motorists in Roscrea rose to the challenge, providing five offers of help within just 25 minutes, beating both results in Dublin. The first to stop, Roscrea native Pat Quinn, a truck driver for a local haulage firm, explained that he has three daughters, all of whom drive. Pat said: “If any of them got into trouble I’d like to think someone would stop and help them too”.

Moving on to Moate, things were even better this time, with five offers of help in less than 20 minutes. As in Dublin and Roscrea, van and truck drivers, often the object of negative press, proved far more likely to assist than their car counterparts.
The “stopping” rates in the rural experiments were 1 in 30 vehicles proving that country drivers are twice more helpful than Dublin drivers.

Paddy Murphy, General Sales Manager for Semperit Ireland, said the results of the roadside experiment showed that Irish drivers - Dublin men in particular - talk the talk when it comes to helping fellow motorists, but don’t walk the walk. “Our research indicated that 92% of men should have stopped to help Ailbhe but the reality was very different,” he said. “However, when we moved the experiment to the countryside the results were much more heartening.”

“There is a serious safety message in all of this,” Mr Murphy went on. “Female motorists need to realise that if they do break down, help may not be as forthcoming as they’d like. We’d urge all women drivers to learn how to change a wheel - it’s quite easy and could come in very useful some day.”