Elderly Man Destroys Horse-Drawn Carriages, Losing Cheaper Car Insurance

By: Liz Taylor, Car Insurance Analyst
CheaperCarInsurance.com

Monday morning, an unusual car accident occurred in Pennsylvania. At roughly 10 am, a car rear ended three horse drawn carriages that were waiting at a red light. The car, driven by an older man who will no longer be able to find cheaper car insurance, hit the final carriage in the row of three, causing a chain reaction crash. The carriage that was hit was actually driven across the street, colliding with a fence.

The horses were uninjured, as the carriages were designed to let the harnesses break free in case of an accident. The drivers of two of the carriages weren’t so lucky and are currently in the hospital, recovering from the accident. The driver of the motorized vehicle is also hospitalized.

Older Drivers and Cheap Car Insurance

There are two sides to this story. Some claim that the horse drawn carriages should not have been in the street and are calling for a ban against them. Others point fingers at the elderly man who was driving the car and instigated the crash. The fact is that the carriages were merely obeying traffic laws. They were stopped at a red light, the same as a car would have been. The damage was perhaps greater thanks to the fact that the carriages aren’t as sturdy as a car built from metal, but the fault was that of the car driver.

Cheaper car insurance is becoming very difficult to find for those over the age of sixty. While some senior drivers are able to drive well and are not a hazard, there is evidence that the older you get, the worse you drive.

Older drivers tend to:

• Take longer to react to dangerous situations
• Have difficulties seeing long distance
• Lose focus more easily
• Face medical complications while driving

Incidents like the one in Pennsylvania are not uncommon, either. While they may not usually involve carriages and horses, statistics show us that intersection related crashes increase with the age of the drivers involved. In fact, nearly half of all accidents involving drivers of 80 years of age or older are at intersections.

How Can Older Drivers Keep Cheaper Car Insurance?

Since people age very differently and many are still quite capable on the road, how can people keep their cheap car insurance rates as they get older? As long as they are safe drivers, they should be able to maintain those lower rates for some time. Here are a few tips on how to do that.

• Avoid accidents by driving very carefully
• Stick to a low risk vehicle
• Shop around for the best insurance rates for your age group
• Pay special attention to stop signs and traffic lights

Eyesight should also be checked regularly and the correct glasses worn to ensure top visibility. Once you have an accident, your cheap car insurance is going to cost more, so it’s best to prevent this from happening in the first place.

Older drivers would also do well to recognize when they are having difficulties with reaction times and sight and stop driving . . . unfortunately many don’t.

Posted: April 21, 2010