GA aircraft can glide but they do it pretty poorly compared to a real glider. They have poor glide ratios meaning not much time to choose a field, and most can'

GA aircraft can glide but they do it pretty poorly compared to a real glider. They have poor glide ratios meaning not much time to choose a field, and most can't feather their prop (because most of them are constant pitch) which makes it worse. Also, a glider pilot is constantly aware of potentially needing to land and is trained to keep a lookout for suitable fields at all times. Most GA pilots will only start looking when their engine fails and thus wasting valuable altitude. Inexperienced pilots will also waste altitude trying to restart the engine before looking for a field. Which leads to hasty decisions. When gliding, altitude is fuel. Glider pilots do "outfield" landings regularly, while GA pilots usually only practice the approach but not the actual landing. So they don't have nearly as much experience at it. And gliders have super low stall speeds so they land more slowly leading to less damage/injuries if something does go wrong. And there's a lot less mass and no flammable fuel involved. And almost all goiders have spoilers which are amazing for short field landings. They're basically an "off switch" for most of the wing. You have much more control over your descent that way and the flare is also much easier. I think all these combined make for a much lower accident rate. I flew both gliders and GA aircraft :) If I have to set down in some random field I would hope to be in a glider! So I don't think it's just a difference in categorisation.