There’s no getting away from the fact that teenage drivers are over-represented in the statistics dealing with fatal automobile accidents. Many of these accidents are preventable, with speed and alcohol being major factors in the cause of many of these accidents.

When we hear of these tragedies, the media has a habit of parading the latest road safety expert who’ll tell us that if our kids got more drivers education to make them better drivers, then that will reduce the numbers of accidents.

I do not agree that it is lack of education that is the problem and for as long as that remains the consensus, we will never improve teenage driver safety. Let me explain why I think this:

There is no doubt that teenage drivers have far less experience than older established drivers, it couldn’t be otherwise – but that fact alone does not make young people bad drivers.

My personal belief is that the vast majority of our young drivers are fully competent to be driving a car; they have only recently been undertaken thorough drivers education, they have diligently practiced driving and they have patiently improved their driving skills – you have to reach a certain standard to get your drivers license.

Most of our young drivers are courteous on the road, they stop at red lights and stop signs, they signal before they make a turn or change lanes, and in general they obey the laws of the highway without question. In fact you could argue that at this stage they have not yet adopted the sloppy driving habits of many older drivers.

I believe that it’s not bad driving but the bad choices that our young drivers make that is the main cause of many accidents. Peer pressure plays a large part in the ‘bad choices’ that our teenage drivers make, if you think back to when you first started driving, how many of you could honestly say that you drove the same way if your friends were in your car rather than your parents?

If we ever want to make any progress in this area, and improve teenage driver safety, we need to examine why teenagers take risks, and why it is more important for them to impress their friends than to remain safe.

Alternatively we could do worse than to look at countries such as Australia and Ireland where they have much stricter laws governing when a teenager can start driving solo and the times of day they are allowed to drive.

Update

Car Insurance For Teenagers understands that many governments around the world a now looking closely at the systems employed in countries such as Ireland and Australia to see if similar laws that are followed there would have an impact on improved teenage driver safety.

In ‘The Causes Of Rocketing Car Insurance For Teenagers – Part 1′ we looked at how the type of car you drive can have a huge influence on the cost of Car Insurance For Young Driver and why choosing a brand new car might be the best option for you.

This article will look at how driving history will affect what young drivers end up paying for their car insurance.

Imagine You Are An Insurance Company

Your job is to make profits for your stock holders, and the way you do that is by charging as much as you can for the insurance you sell, but also by limiting the amount you pay out in claims.

Now think what you would do if you were contacted by two different young drivers looking for insurance. They were both born on the same day; both drive exactly the same car, live in the same town, and are both males. The only difference between these two guys is that Driver A has a perfect driving history, no speeding tickets or traffic violations, while Driver B has been stopped twice for speeding and once for running a red light.

If they were exactly the same in all five criteria, the cost of their insurance would more than likely be exactly the same. But remember what I said about “limiting the amount of money you pay out in claims”, which one of these drivers is more likely to have an accident and will most likely cost you more in payouts?

It’s Driver B obviously, which is why you would make him pay extra for his insurance, if you wanted to make a profit. It’s not unfair, it’s not personal, it’s just what they do.

Insurance companies assess risk, they are very good at it, but to calculate the risk they need information. This information comes from you, about yourself, and from national statistics. Unfortunately national statistics say that teenage drivers, especially males, are up to ten times more likely to have an accident than someone over 30.

What Does All This Mean For You?

It’s simple really, if you want to get insurance, and you want to get it at an affordable cost, you must keep your drivers licence clean. It’s not easy I know, but think about how different you drive if you have your parents in the car to how you drive if your friends are in your car. I know when I was younger my friends would always encourage me to go faster, and I did, but I was lucky I didn’t get caught. You might not be as lucky as I was, and while your friends might laugh at you if you keep to the speed limit, they will laugh even more when they see you walking to the mall or even worse catching the BUS!

Don’t despair too much though, because there are many tips and tricks you can use to get the cost down, while still staying legal and safe. We have set out to organize all of this information here, in order to help you learn more about young drivers insurance, and how you can save some money.

If you would like more information on specific topics relating to car insurance for young driver, please feel free to let us know. Thanks again for the visit and make sure to check back often to get the latest additional information on car insurance for teenagers.