Simulated Crash May Lower Student Car Insurance Claims

By: Liz Taylor, Car Insurance Analyst
CheaperCarInsurance.com

High school students were given a grim demonstration of the effects of drunk driving Wednesday at the Kasson-Mantorville High School. With prom just a few days away, officials wanted to drive home the fact that drinking and driving can be fatal. They did that by presenting a sobering crash scene, complete with two “fatalities.” The demonstration could help lower student car insurance claims this year, as well.

Students watched as emergency crews rushed to the scene, assessed the situation and began to cut the victims out of the vehicles. They pronounced two of them dead and loaded them into waiting emergency vehicles. For at least one student, the scene was the unpleasant reminder of accidents in years past… real ones.

While this was just a set up event, it was a necessary one. Students die every year in drinking related accidents. Many of these occur around prom, when it’s customary to imbibe. Unfortunately, many teens take this opportunity to not only drink, but to get quite drunk. Since teens are more likely to crash even without alcohol in their systems, merely from inexperience, this is a bad combination.

Why Students Need the Shock

Alcohol is involved in 60% of fatal teen car accidents. While death is the worst result of drinking and driving, there are many more teens who end up injured, often permanently as a direct result of alcohol related driving. Why are young people so susceptible? Here are a few reasons:

• They tend to feel invincible
• Peers pressure them to do so
• They feel the need to celebrate at special events

Events like this are being held across the country to help shock students into realizing that they are vulnerable. Often, videos of real car accidents are shown after the main demonstration. Could it be working? Possibly, since over 80% of students chose not to drink last year at prom.

Preventing Higher Student Car Insurance

Students in general are more likely to be involved in car accidents. That’s why student car insurance is usually higher priced and it goes up faster if a young person crashes their vehicle.

While shocking kids with a realistic look at how drinking and driving can affect their lives is good, it’s a onetime thing. It’s important for parents and teachers to remind them on a regular basis of the consequences. Death, injury and higher insurance rates are some of the more important issues to discuss regularly.

Students have higher car insurance for several reasons:

• They have less experience and are more likely to overreact to situations
• They are more likely to be distracted while driving, by texting, calling, etc.
• The chances of a crash are several times higher for teens than even senior drivers

Student car insurance is not likely to drop any time soon, but in the meantime, demonstrations like those being held before prom can help prevent families from seeing higher rates. It will also reduce the chances of something far worse, death and injury at the hands of a drunk driver.

Posted: May 10, 2010