Dozens of male drivers have complained to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission (BCC) and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASAI) about the Road Safety Authority (RSA) 'He drives, She dies' advertising campaign.

Anne O'Brien, head of the BCC, confirmed that at least 10 complaints have been officially registered expressing outrage over the "sexist" contents of the ads, which are currently being aired on radio and other media. The campaign encourages women not to get into cars with men who they feel may drive dangerously.

Although the ASAI has no remit over non-commercial advertisements, it is understood it too has begun to receive a significant number of complaints. Chief executive Orla Twomey says those who have been in touch with the authority have been referred to the BCC.

One complainant, in a letter to the BCC, said he was "disgusted" at the campaign.

"I have never in my life heard something so blatantly sexist and insulting being aired on radio," he wrote. "It is sickening in the extreme that the RSA feel it is acceptable to use such sexism to degrade an entire gender."

Male drivers have also vented their fury online and on forums describing their contact with the RSA and encouraging other listeners to send in their complaints and make an effort to have the ad removed.

But Rose of Tralee Aoife Kelly, who works with car crash victims in the National Rehab Centre, and who launched the campaign for the RSA, said that women must start saying no to 'boy racers' or pay the consequences.

"Ladies, you need to take a stand and not get into a car with a guy with a need for speed and a blatant disregard for his own and others' right to life," she said. "It's a simple choice – live or die."

In a response to the complaints, RSA chief Noel Brett said more than two thirds of female passengers killed between 1998 and 2009 were being driven by a male driver.

"At the risk of offending male sensitivities, women need to know that they are being killed through male-dominated driver errors such as speeding and drink-driving," Brett said.

"Unfortunately the facts speak for themselves," he continued. "Males are massively over-represented as the drivers involved in fatal collisions in Ireland, accounting for 80% of the drivers in fatal collisions, compared to 20% for female drivers."