Stacking the Odds in the Favour of Young Drivers

Young drivers are facing bad odds when it comes to staying safe on the road.  They are the demographic group of drivers most likely to be in an accident and for that accident to involve a fatality or a serious injury.  While the odds may be against them statistically there are tools and decisions to be made that can stack the odds in their favour.

Parents can make a major difference in the safety of their young driver by setting a good example and driving safely themselves.  Young drivers were once just passengers in the back seat of the parent’s car.  Children watch and repeat the behaviours they see from their parents.  By driving safely and avoiding distracted behaviours and unsafe driving practices, parents can set young drivers up for success.

Choosing telematics car insurance is a tool to help keep young drivers safer since it serves as a constant reminder to drive safely.  The product uses a GPS unit to monitor the driver’s habits behind the wheel.  Driving data collected is reviewed by the car insurance provider for risk assessment and premium costing.  Safe driving could offer the possibility for discounted rewards on premiums.  Some policies offer parental alerts when unsafe driving events occur such as speeding or hard braking.  While the product can’t guarantee a young driver will drive safer it could serve as a safety reminder while offering quality coverage at an affordable rate.

Safety experts suggest parents choose the car with the most safety features for their young driver.  While it is true that young drivers often get the “hand me down” family car or a used car for their first car, it should not negate the need to look for as many safety features as possible.  Enclosing the young driver in the safest car available could make the difference should an accident occur.

Setting rules with young drivers is another essential tool to keeping them safe on the road.  Studies have shown that the presence of a peer aged passenger in the car with a young driver increases the likelihood of an accident.  The more peer aged passengers present in the car the higher the odds become of there being a serious accident.  By limiting the number of passengers in a car with a young driver, parents are setting safety standards that could make all the difference.

Drivers Less Safe in Popular India Built Cars According to Crash Tests

Drivers choosing popular small cars built in India are less safe than they should be according to a study by UK based safety watchdog Global NCAP.  The tests concluded that if the five cars tested that failed their crash tests were involved in an accident that the occupants inside were in risk of serious injuries or a fatal injury.

The car safety test by Global NCAP involved five popular models including the Suzuki-Maruti Alto 800, the Tata Nano, Ford Figo, Hyundai i10 and the Volkswagen Polo.  The Tata Nano is the world’s cheapest car.  The five models account for 20% of all sales in India last year.

The cars were apparently made cheaper for manufacturing by removing many of the safety features that would be found in other car models by the same manufacturers.  None of the five models were fitted in manufacturing with airbags that would be standard on most models in Europe, Canada and America.

Max Mosley, head of NCAP Global, said, “It’s worrying to see levels of safety that are 20 years behind the five-star standards now common in Europe and North America.

“Poor structural integrity and the absence of airbags are putting the lives of Indian consumers at risk. They have a right to know how safe their vehicles are and to expect the same basic levels of safety as standard as customers in other part of the world.”

Young drivers are the most likely to be involved in a car accident within the first year of their driving solo.  It is this reason that they should be behind the wheel of the safest car possible.  Parents are encouraged by safety experts to look for cars that have safety features when choosing one for their young driver.

Drivers to Encounter Speeder Catching Cameras on Major Roads

Drivers speeding may be facing a fine each and every time they break the speed limit.  Motorway speed cameras work 24/7 and catch each and every speeder which is why they are installed or so say those looking to push safe driving speeds.  There are critics that see the cameras as less of a tool to keep roads safer but as an opportunity for raising money to fund budgets.

The new cameras meant to catch speeding drivers passing the 70 mph limit are meant to be stealth cameras as they will be a blending grey color rather than bright yellow as older speed cameras are colored.  They will be installed on major important roadways such as the M1 and M6.  Rather than looking to control speed better in construction areas, these cameras will be set to look for speeders on high volume roads.

One opposition group, Alliance of British Drivers (ABD), believes the cameras will have little to no impact on keeping drivers from speeding.

Roger Lawson, ABD spokesperson, said, “We are opposed to speed cameras in general. The evidence of their success in promoting safety is not good and in reality what is happening now is that the police are using speed cameras to fund their other activities through speed awareness courses.

“If these cameras are grey rather than yellow they are going to be harder to spot and so will have no impact in slowing traffic down. If there is a good reason for the traffic to be slowed down then the cameras need to be as visible as possible.”

There are those that oppose the cameras due to cost but in most studies the cameras pay for themselves quickly with revenue from fines.

A Highways Agency spokesperson said “These are not stealth cameras they are more visible that they were before. These motorways are not about speed limits. They are about smoothing the traffic flows and increasing capacity.

“The onus is on the driver to abide by the speed limit.”

Car Brands Rule Super Bowl Advertising Lineup

The Super Bowl is in full swing and while the game is leaning toward the Seattle Seahawks with the team out on top at halftime over Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos, the true winners are the commercials that are playing during the broadcast.  Car advertisements are leading the lineup and the clever marketing teams have been working long and hard to win over the audience.  Some feature romance as a theme while others are going for cute with driving dogs.

Brits feature in the Jaguar advert with a theme of “It’s Good to Be Bad” revealing that often the villain of movies has a British accent.  The reasons offered are all positive with references to Brits being precise, clever, more focused and one step ahead.  The commercial starring several actors including Sir Ben Kingsley reveals that all of them drive Jaguars and offers up the Twitter hashtag of #goodtobebad.

Audi features a disturbingly funny advert with a couple trying to decide between a Doberman dog and a Chihuahua and then considering breeding the dogs to offer up a mixed breed “Dohuahua”.  The result is a dog handler showing the small pocket size dog with an oversized Doberman head in a Kennel Club Show and people encountering the strangely disproportionate dog in daily encounters.  The result is a few laughs but little remembrance of the intended branding.

Cars aren’t the only companies paying top dollar for attention with the Super Bowl audience with Pepsi, Coke, GoDaddy and Budweiser putting up well prepared branding advertisements.  Budweiser will most likely walk away with top ranking of the event with their “Puppy Love” themed commercial.  Doritos opened up their brand to global submissions from film makers everywhere to have the opportunity to compete for the opportunity to have a featured commercial during the Super Bowl as well as a chance for a million dollar prize.  They have two top runners according to social media with one featuring a Time Machine theme and another with a Dorito’s cheese covered finger cleaner submitted by a UK filmmaker.

The halftime show will feature Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers sponsored by Pepsi.

Telematics Car Insurance Simplifies Car Cover for Good

Driving a car on UK roadways carries with it many privileges, but those privileges do not come without a cost.  Obtaining a driver licence carries a cost, as well as driver training.  But there is another cost which is attached to driving.  It is the cost of car insurance.  Many drivers consider obtaining cover to be difficult and cumbersome.  There is now a product available which changes the industry and therefore many driver opinions forever.  It is known as telematics pay as you drive car insurance.

Telematics car insurance simplifies the car insurance process for good.  It is changing the industry like nothing ever has.  It is the first car insurance which helps drivers by offering them a scheme to help them save money each month.

Telematics car insurance comes with a scheme based on safe driving.  This scheme is unique due to it being based on earning rewards as you drive.  A special piece of hardware is installed in the insured car which monitors driving habits.  These habits are monitored so drivers are able to prove they can handle their car with safety in mind.

Habits like acceleration, braking and cornering are monitored as well as others.  Car cover is now simpler than ever.  A driver simply needs to drive a car with safety in mind in order to take advantage of valuable rewards offered by insurers.

As insurers see drivers handle cars with safety in mind, those drivers are presented with valuable rewards in the form of discounts applied to future monthly car insurance costs.

Telematics car insurance has made car cover simple like never before.  It can be purchased online at any time.

Telematics Car Insurance Makes Case for Safety

Safely handling of a car has never been a focal point of car insurers.  They constantly want to keep the amount of claims down, but have never offered a scheme to help drivers accomplish this.  Now however, a new type of car insurance is making the case for safety and the car insurance industry will never be the same.  The latest car insurance product to make waves across the country is known as telematics car insurance.

Telematics pay as you drive car insurance is attracting attention for very specific reasons.  It is enabling drivers to potentially save money based simply on drivers handling their car with safety.  A driver only needs to drive with safety in mind in order to save money.

This is unchartered territory for car insurance.  It is the first time a car insurance product is offering a scheme to aid drivers in saving money.  With telematics car insurance, drivers have a method to proving they are handling their car with safety.  This is done with a small device which is installed in the insured car on or near the dashboard.

The small device monitors driving habits like braking, cornering and acceleration.  Other habits are monitored as well, but these three are quite important to making the case for a driver handling the car with safety.

When the insurer sees the driver handling the car with safety, that driver becomes eligible to receive rewards in the form of discounts applied to future monthly car insurance costs.

The case for safe driving has never been stronger.  Telematics car insurance is making this possible and is easily obtainable online at any time.

Telematics Car Insurance Makes Miles Affordable

Car insurance is not inexpensive for any driver.  It is an expense which drivers pay for every month and is required for driving on any UK roadway.  A new car insurance product is taking the country by storm and is growing in popularity each week.  The latest car insurance product to attract the attention of drivers is known as telematics pay as you drive car insurance.  It is the first car insurance product which allows drivers to pay for only the miles they estimate to need in the coming months.

Drivers are becoming more fond of telematics car insurance each week.  They are able to do something with this new car insurance that is completely unique.  It is known as pay as you drive.  This scheme allows drivers to only pay for the miles which they believe they will drive in the coming months.  This is an excellent way to buy car insurance and save money at the same time.

Car insurance is not an inexpensive part of getting behind the wheel.  Pay as you drive car insurance allows drivers to pay for a set amount and benefit the family budget as well.  As miles get close to expiring, drivers are able to top up like topping up minutes on a mobile phone.

Telematics car insurance can benefit every driver and is attracting drivers from many age groups.  Whether drivers are simply going to school and home or traveling to a place of employment, they are seeing benefits which have never been seen before.

Telematics car insurance is making cover more affordable for all types of drivers, regardless of age.

Car Color Can Reveal Your Personality

While young drivers often inherit the older family car and have less influence on the style, color or model of the car they drive, the same cannot be said of the original buyer.  According to a study by the former DuPont Company, now Axalta, the color preference of a car can tell a lot about the buyer.  Axalta Coating Systems is a global car coating business located in car manufacturing city Detroit so they know a lot about color preferences for cars of all types.

The Axalta Automotive Color Popularity Report for 2013 suggested that the type of car chosen by a driver such as a sporty car or a luxury sedan would likely be colored differently.  Sporty cars are more often colorful and meant to stand out such as bright yellow or red while expensive sedans are usually looking to be less flashy and more conservative in popular white or black tones.

White cars are often popular choices for people where the weather is hot.  So color could also divulge where the driver lives as much as their personality type.  White is also seen as a youthful and contemporary color that is seen as a fresh brand color.  Black is seen as a luxury color that evokes a flare of sophistication.  It is a classic color that is considered a popular color by conservative drivers.

Silver is another popular car color and is considered a neutral and modern color that is often chosen by ambitious personalities.  Red is a popular color and with men is seen as powerful while women view the color as fun.  It is definitely a color that is calling for the attention from others.  Blue comes in a wide variety of tones and depending on the particular blue chosen can indicate security and serenity or a bold confidence.

Brown and tans are popular with those that are reserved while yellow is a popular choice for outgoing young drivers.  Green comes in darker hues to light and can indicate conservative choices or a tendency toward environmentalism.

Of course most often there is more to the choice of the car than just the color but there is some truth to choice of color being indicative as to the driver’s current mood, confidence, place of residence and age.  The same can be said of fashion choices, color choice of smartphone and backpacks.  It is likely more important in this day and age whether the car gets good fuel mileage and has a reputation for safety and longevity on the road than whether it comes in bright red or subdued gray.

Drivers May Face Smoking Ban if Children are Passengers

Drivers may soon be forbidden to smoke in their personal cars as David Cameron is said to be considering the restriction.  The ban would be specific to those cars with children as passengers.  Possible fines would range in the area of £60 for a driver or adult in a car that smoked with children present.

Should the vote for the new restriction fail to pass then it is expected it would be included in the manifesto of the Labour party for their next election.

Smoking in workplaces and public areas has been restricted in England since 2007.  The savings in health care dollars is suspected to be in the millions of pounds as people have been able to avoid breathing in second-hand smoke from those that choose to smoke despite health warnings.

The ban against smoking in a car when children are passengers would not be trend setting as a new consideration to further cut back those exposed to second hand smoke.  Such a ban is already in place in many areas of America, Australia, and several European countries.

Andy Burnham, Shadow Health Secretary, made a comment to Sky News in an interview saying, “When it comes to improving the health of children, we are duty bound to consider any measure that might make a difference.

“Adults are free to make their own choices but that often does not apply to children and that’s why society has an obligation to protect them from preventable harm.”

Experts have revealed that smoking in a car is much more harmful to a child than smoking in the home due to the close quarters.  The toxic concentrations of the smoking are hard to avoid within a car and children do not usually have the means to escape the toxic air and choose to avoid it by opening a window or exiting the car.

Pro-smoking advocates feel that the ban is unnecessary.  They are also afraid of how far the ban on smoking could reach and perhaps someday be targeted to restrict smokers from inhaling their cigarettes, cigars and pipes within their own homes.

In a poll conducted by YouGov in 2011 it was found that 78% of adults in Great Britain felt smoking in a car with young children should be banned, while 44% felt the ban should be extended to all cars whether children are present as passengers or not.

Drivers Could Face Roadside Fatigue Tests in Near Future

Drivers tired at the wheel are as dangerous as those that are drink driving and drug driving.  In Australia where two out of ten serious car accidents involve fatigued drivers they are attempting to make roads safer.  In a $14.5 million funded project, researchers are looking for ways to improve alertness and discover through roadside testing the drivers that are too tired to drive.

Should testing become available to officers then drivers could be fined for getting behind the wheel when they should be resting.  The current research is involving using a person’s saliva or sweat to determine if they are alert enough to drive.  The use of such a test could cross over to test workers that are fleet drivers or operating heavy machinery on a job site.

The research teams at the Co-Operative Research Centre for Alertness, Safety and Productivity are working on ways to increase alertness with specialized lighting, alerting systems, and testing abilities to see past a person’s tiredness to discover underlying health problems such as sleep apnea or insomnia.  Consideration is being given to tests that could be done individually by a driver before they climbed in behind a wheel.  The test could signal that more than a caffeinated drink is necessary to begin a journey.

In a recent survey conducted by safety charity Brake and Direct Line insurance, it was determined that a third of the drivers in the UK admitted to nodding off while driving.  One in fourteen of those polled admitted to completely falling asleep behind the wheel.  Most of the reason is that people are simply sleep deprived with 49% of the 1,000 polled drivers saying they had driven after sleeping less than five hours the previous night.