Husbands lie more than wives about driving mistakes

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The lies spouses tell

• 35 percent have dinged the car and blamed someone else. Husbands: 42 percent. Wives: 27 percent.

• 25 percent have received a traffic ticket and not told their spouse. Husbands: 34 percent. Wives: 16 percent.
• 24 percent have a secret car accident. Husbands: 31 percent. Wives: 17 percent.
• 19 percent have forgotten to pay a car insurance bill and not said anything. Husbands: 23 percent. Wives: 15 percent.
• 15 percent have driven without auto insurance without telling their spouse. Husbands: 21 percent. Wives: 9 percent.

Insure.com surveyed 1,000 U.S. married adults (half women and half men) in March 2013.

Molly M. of Yuma, Ariz., says her husband might have tried to keep his scrape with the law a secret if it weren’t for two little mommy’s helpers — the couple’s daughters, then ages 5 and 7, in the back seat.

Her husband, who is chronically late, was trying to get the girls to school on time. “And so he was speeding, made an illegal left — and got a ticket for not having an insurance card with him — so three tickets in one stop.”

Upon seeing her daughters later that day, they blurted out, “Mommy, Mommy! Daddy got pulled over by a policeman!” The girls, who are now 6 and 8 years old, still like to talk about it. “Remember when Daddy got pulled over by that policeman and we were really late for school!?”

According to a recent survey by Insure.com, 34 percent of married men are keeping a traffic ticket a secret from their wives. Conversely, only 16 percent of married women say they have a secret traffic ticket.

It turns out there are lots of driving-related secrets among spouses, from dinging the car to driving without insurance.

Crash it and forget it

Even car accidents are being kept under wraps. Thirty-one percent of husbands and 17 percent of wives have a secret car accident.

Gary N. of Ponte Vedra, Fla., remembers his dad, Homer, a true prankster, trying to pull a fast one on Gary’s mother back in the late ‘70s. His father accidentally hit something in his Ford Galaxy, damaging the front fender to the tune of a couple hundred dollars.

His dad waited for his mom to drive the car and then pretended to see the damaged fender for the first time, saying, “Joan, what did you hit?” Of course she was taken by surprise so they “determined” someone must have hit her in the grocery store parking lot, and they commiserated together about lousy drivers.

It wasn’t until a few years later that Homer confessed to damaging the car himself. Gary says his mom was mad at first, but then laughed it off. Both his parents are gone now but these are the kind of funny stories Gary and his siblings reminisce about today.

Gary’s mother was like many wives – trusting of her husband and unaware of reality. Insure.com’s survey shows that 23 percent of wives say “it’s possible” or they know their husbands have hidden a car accident, while 31 percent of husbands say they’ve done it.

At the same time, husbands are harboring a lot of suspicions about their wives’ driving, without basis in fact. Thirty-eight percent of men think “it’s possible” or know that their wives have kept a car accident secret. But only 17 percent of wives say they’ve actually done so.