AUTO INSURANCE ARTICLE
Top Four Driving Behaviors To Avoid for Cheap Auto Insurance
By: coppeneurHaving the right driving behavior does not only keep the highway safe for everyone, driving right also affords motorists to find cheap auto insurance rates. Conversely, aggressive or reckless driving, speeding, driving while impaired, and cellphone using while driving can push the cost of your auto insurance up. Let's unpack these four costly behaviors and examine the toll they can take on your safety and your yearly auto insurance premiums.
Driving aggressively is defined by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as "the operation of a motor vehicle in a manner that endangers or is likely to endanger persons or property." Common manifestations of aggressive driving behaviors include passing on the right shoulder, tailgating slower drivers, swerving on the road, making obscene or intimidating gestures toward other drivers and flashing the lights or honking the horn in non-emergency situations. About 7M crashes recorded in the United States have been caused by aggressive driving.
Speeding is perhaps the most common moving violation—and the most deadly. Typically done by those who are running late, not attentive to their speed, overwhelmed by their new car or just into fast driving - speeding often results to fatalities and injury. Auto insurance companies, according to an MSN Money research,may increase premiums by as much as 50 percent for one speeding ticket in a three-year period (although not all insurers penalize consumers for a single speeding ticket).
Driving under the influence of drugs or liquor, or while sleepy is a behavior that spells disaster! The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that alcohol-related crashes kill someone every 31 minutes—and cost the U.S. over $50 billion annually. In the same study, CDC estimates that drugs other than alcohol (like marijuana and cocaine) cause about 18 percent of motor vehicle deaths.
On the phone while driving – whether making a call or sending an SMS is recently highlighted by the National Safety Council as a growing danger on our roads. Being on the phone while also behind the wheel makes even the best multitasker distracted.
While many states still do not consider the use of these devices illegal while driving, it does not take one to be a genius to know that this driving behavior is a sure way to death and injuries on the road.
Not being aware of these distractions from safe driving is something that could prove to be costly on your life and your pocket. These less than disciplined driving behaviors could make getting cheap auto insurance a challenge. In fact, these behaviors cause increased auto insurance rates across the board, due to higher insurance claim rates and medical bills resulting from accidents.
Not surprisingly, the severity of accidents involved with unsafe driving practices goes hand in hand with insurance costs—making cheap auto insurance tough to find.
Countless lives could be saved, debilitating injuries be prevented, and auto insurance premiums increase could be averted if these four driving behaviors are avoided or managed by motorists.
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