Reader question:

What makes you more likely to get into a car insurance accident and lose your discount car insurance?

Lucy

Thanks for asking, Lucy.

There are several factors that make car insurance accidents more likely. I’m just going to ignore which groups are more likely to get into car insurance accidents for a minute, so we can concentrate that what it is that people do has a big effect on how easily they are going to get into a car insurance accident. Even if someone is attempting to drive safety, negligence is a big problem and can make you lose your discount car insurance rates.

• Going too fast.

It should come as no surprise that one of the main causes of car insurance accidents is speeding. Thirty percent of al car insurance accidents last year that involved loss of life were caused by someone who was going over the speed limit or racing. Every year, we throw away forty billion dollars in car insurance claims, lawsuits, damages, funeral expenses, and so on simply due to accidents that are caused by someone who is speeding. For reasons of the definition, a car insurance accident is included in these statistics if the speeder was given a ticket for speeding or if the officer filing the police report wrote that one of the causes of the accident was speeding.

• Going too drunk.

Every half hour, a drunk driver gets into a car insurance accident. Pretty sobering, huh? It’s no wonder that SR22 car insurance rates are so high when the risk is so high among people who are prone to drink and drive. Forty one percent of deaths from car insurance accidents happened in an accident involving an intoxicated driver. Last year, almost eighteen thousand people died in alcohol related accidents, several hundred more than the year before. Driving while drunk is the most dangerous negligence, and not only that but it will cause a rise in your car insurance premium that you haven’t seen since you first got your license.

• Combination.

No surprise, but it gets even worse when you put the two together. Among the car insurance accidents that involved drunk drivers, forty percent of those drivers were going over the speed limit when the accident happened. Compare that with other car insurance accidents that do not involve drunk drivers, and the percentage dwindles to fourteen percent.

I cannot stress enough how much danger driving and drinking, or driving over the speed limit causes to you, the driver, your passengers, and other cars. Not only are you so much more likely to get into a car insurance accident, but it’s also a lot easier for your car insurance rates to go up because in either case you will likely be required to file an SR22 form. SR22 forms are required when you have bee convicted of an offense related to drunk driving, and they will affect your car insurance rates for three years and result in loss of license if your car insurance coverage lapses.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.