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Welcome to Expert Car Insurance News. Here you will find all the latest information concerning the motor insurance industry.

Posted February 2008

Scots to shock young drivers into safer habits

12 councils in the west of Scotland are undertaking a publicity campaign in an attempt to encourage young drivers to avoid bad practices that increase the likelihood of being involved or even dying in a car accident. Hero-to-Zero is the catchy name of the campaign that is using shock tactics of pictures of a car destroyed in an accident with the message that five young west of Scotland people die every day in car accidents.

The target population is 17-25 year olds and uses posters, beer mats and radio to push the message that drivers can loose everything in a moment’s stupidity encouraged by pals in the car or by just driving too fast. These two contributory factors are very high in the list of causes of accidents involving young drivers.

The three week campaign was designed with the help young people in the Strathclyde area, some of whom have driving convictions, and the cost of £35,000 will help place the posters in high school and pub toilets throughout the region which will feature ‘youth speak’ to make the message more accessible to the target group. The radio element will be aired by Your Radio which serves the area and has high youth listener numbers.

Young driver deaths rose by 46% between 2002 and 2006, and nearly 1,600 young people had some involvement in car accidents during 2006. These are the statistics that the West of Scotland Road Safety Forum, which includes the Strathclyde Police in a joint venture with the 12 councils and Strathclyde Safety Camera Partnership, wish to reduce. Their chairman called the statistics horrendous and wants to target all those young people that may be involved, both young drivers and those that are in a position of influence over those motorists, to keep the group safer on the road.

Quite apart from the cost in human misery of injury and fatalities, the reckless behaviour of the minority of young drivers helps keep car insurance premiums very high for those aged under 25.

Posted February 2008

Women are gaining ground in the shouting match

Women today are getting increasingly stressed out by circumstances on our roads and are more likely than ever to react aggressively to that stress.

Diamond, specialists in women’s car insurance, recently undertook a questionnaire and found that more women than men said they had felt angry with other motorists whilst driving. Only 18% of men, but 21% of women had this experience, and nowadays women and men both reacted in equal proportion (51% each) in admitting that they had resorted to shouting at other motorists. When it comes to being shouted at by other drivers 54% of women and a very similar 56% of men reported this happening to them.

Men are still ahead in the more aggressive tendencies, but only just, with 8% of men (7% of women) saying that they regularly shout at other drivers and 2% of men (1% of women) admitting to having physically accosted another motorist.

In terms of the perception of change in stress whilst behind the wheel, 32% of men said that driving is more stressful than twelve months ago, amongst women this figure was 35%.

A spokesperson for Diamond said that we should all remember that all drivers are doing the same thing; trying to get from one place to another and stress just increases our likelihood of having an accident and eventually paying higher car insurance premiums.

All drivers should try not to react angrily to circumstances around them and follow a few tips to take the stress out of the situation: Take a few deep breaths before you react at all; don’t concentrate on the stress issue but keep your eyes on the road; be aware it may be your mistake and be willing to acknowledge that; don’t drive aggressively in the first place and don’t react to someone else’s anger with anger, that will just turn a temporary blip into a flash point.

Posted February 2008

Six million car accidents in icy weather

Esure car insurance have issued study results that show that some six million motorists in the UK have been involved in a accident during the winter months on icy road conditions, that’s 20% of drivers.

They experienced an increase of 130,000 car insurance claims during the month of November 2007 which marked the start of winter proper last year, and many drivers reported a consistent reason for the problems they had experienced. In the report, 63% said they would prefer that less well used roads were also salted and 40% said that the local councils fail to keep our roads safe by better timed and comprehensive gritting practices.

This perceived lack of preparedness on behalf of the councils results in 93% of drivers reporting that they have decided not to undertake a journey because the roads are not safe to travel because of the weather conditions. 31% even said they would even consider calling in sick rather than get drive in very bad weather conditions.

The responsibility for road gritting falls under two authorities. The Highways Agency is responsible for keeping all motorways and major trunk roads open whilst the local councils manage smaller roads under their care only when they deem it necessary. This results in 89% of drivers believing that motorways are safer to drive in icy weather.

An esure spokesman said that it’s clear that some councils aren’t gritting smaller roads thoroughly enough to ensure safer road conditions for motorists. He also said that drivers should be much more aware of the road conditions in icy weather and take the appropriate safe driving actions to ensure they and all other road users reached their destinations unharmed, accident free and on time.