Car Surfing: Child Abuse Charges and Higher Auto Insurance Rates
By: Mike Silverstone, Car Insurance Analyst
CheaperCarInsurance.com
Car surfing is a teenage game where someone hangs onto the hood of the car while it’s being driven. It’s potentially dangerous and not only for the person on the hood, as an 18 year old driver discovered this past Monday. He now faces jail time and increased auto insurance premiums as a result of his antics.
The car was seen driving down a street with several young girls hanging off the outside of it, on Monday evening. While this in itself is dangerous, the young driver pulled a hard turn while accelerating which threw all of the girls off the vehicle and sent them tumbling to the asphalt. The witness reported that it appeared as though he was about to do a donut. The car had been traveling at around 25 miles per hour when the girls were sent flying and they suffered some bumps and bruises.
Banged Up, But Safe
A witness called 911 and was threatened by the 18 year old driver. The car was then found several hours later by police, without any license plates and with two young girls (14 and 15) inside, along with the driver and another young man. The girls were badly banged up, with bruises and bumps on their heads.
Despite the driver’s claims that the girls had been victims of a hit and run incident, the police realized that they were the girls who had been car surfing. Since they were minors, the driver is looking at child abuse charges for recklessly endangering their lives. He’s lucky that’s all he’s being charged with. If any of the young girls had suffered more serious injuries or died as a result of the “fun,” he would be looking at something far more serious.
His auto insurance company isn’t likely to be happy for several reasons.
- He’s only 18, with less than 2 years driving experience
- He used his vehicle in a dangerous manner
- He attempted to hide from police with the missing plates
At this point, jail or no jail, this young man is in trouble, both with the law and financially speaking. His auto insurance company will consider him a high risk individual, which means his premiums will probably go up quite a bit. While the car surfing joy ride may have been all in fun in the beginning, he’s very lucky none of the girls were seriously injured or killed during the incident.
Unfortunately, the car surfing incident is one that is all too common. Teens are generally considered to be at higher risk by auto insurance companies because they tend to engage in more reckless driving than any other age group. They often consider themselves invincible and the stereotype of teenagers driving fast is actually true for many.
Accidents among teen drivers between the ages of 16 and 19 are 2.7 times higher than all accidents among drivers of any other age. There’s a good reason auto insurance companies consider new drivers to be high risk! Fatalities among this age group are also considerably higher, possibly due to the fact that teens often driver faster.
Reasons for teen accidents include the following:
- Inability to identify dangers correctly
- Texting or talking on the phone while driving
- Driving under the influence
- Inexperience
- Driving at high speeds
- Driving with passengers or at night
The vast majority of teen accidents are caused by simply not having enough experience to handle sudden situations or being distracted. However, as the young man mentioned above and his passengers now know, it can also be due to sheer lack of common sense.
Posted: March 18, 2010
