Car Insurance -
Car Insurers’ New Penalty For Mobile Phone Convictions
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We can hardly resist the temptation of using phones while driving, as dangerous as it sometimes could be. It causes distraction and motorists who try to answer or make calls with their mobile phones as they drive are believed be four times more likely to be involved in accidents than those who don’t. But statistics have shown that a growing number of motorists find it hard to resist the habit. And even 58 per cent of drivers do not dispute the fact that mobile phones cause the most disruption.
The decision to ban drivers from using hand held mobile phones is directly linked to the fact that it often leads to accidents, especially where drivers lose concentration and crash into other road users.
Each year, figures show that more than 3,000 people lose their lives and about 258,000 are injured as a result of traffic accidents in the UK. This suggests that apart from diseases more people are killed by road accidents than any other cause. Although this does not in any way attribute the accidents to the use of mobile phones, it nonetheless highlights the dangers road users face on Britain roads. This is further aggravated by the drivers who cause accidents through reckless use of mobile phones.
This, perhaps, explains why the law frowns at it and punishes those who are caught in the act. Usually, erring drivers earn themselves a £60 fine and three points on their licence. But this penalty seems to deter fewer drivers than expected.
Further statistics say that young drivers between the ages of 17 and 34 are twice as likely to drive while they use mobile phones as those who are 55 year and above. In addition it has been found that there has been an increase, rather than decrease, in the number of those who fall foul of the law. Specifically, a study by Confused.com said the number of those caught has gone up by 45 per cent. The rise, according to the survey, continues steadily at an approximate rate of 18 per cent month. This, somehow, implies that conviction is not helping cut the number of offenders.
Amidst growing concerns that the problem is increasingly getting harder to tackle, car insurers, led by Allianz Car Insurance, have now introduced a new penalty. Whereas insurers used to treat mobile phone convictions in the same way as speeding convictions, the new rule will see them applying the same penalty as dangerous driving. Drivers who get convicted will therefore pay higher car insurance premiums.
As it becomes the first car insurer to apply this punishment in the UK, Allianz Insurance car insurance premium for convicted drivers will rise by 30 per cent.
The company’s motor manager, Neil Walker explained that their decision to raise the insurance premiums for those who go against the rule will further highlight the dangers of using mobile phones while driving and that it will also compel drivers to avoid it. This will, probably, act in getting motorists to drop the habit or at least make them reduce it.
Given that the law has been unable to tackle the problem, as statistics have clearly shown, one wonders whether anything will be achieved by insurers other than making more money out of motorists. However, since people may be made to pay more to get exactly the same service their more careful neighbours are getting, it might work after all. It might force them to have a rethink and even decide to only make or receive phone calls via their mobile phones at the right time and place.
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