Anyone who has had a young driver in their household can relate to the shock of finding out how much that is going to increase your insurance. As agents, we have discussed the problems with not wanting to rate young drivers on the policy. Many people try to do whatever they can to avoid paying for the age factor, as well as the bad driving record factor, when it comes to their insurance.
We can certainly understand your concerns, but the problems that come from neglecting to rate your young driver or the person with a bad driving record, can really come back to bite you, if you aren’t careful. When you sign your name on the insurance policy, you are saying that the information you have provided is true to the best of your knowledge. Now if you have someone in the household who is not listed on the policy, and they drive the vehicle and have an accident, your insurance company can deny the claim, since you stated that all the drivers were listed. The time to find out that your extra driver was not covered is not after they have had an accident.
In reality, that is when your nightmare really begins. If your uninsured driver has an accident, and your company denies the claim, you and your uninsured driver are going to be responsible for the damages to the other car, and if that is all it costs you, you should consider yourself lucky. Most times, an uninsured accident costs that driver a ticket, a fine, and usually an SR-22 (or financial responsibility) filing, and if that is all it costs, they would have still gotten off easy. The big cost in an uninsured accident comes when someone is hurt. Medical bills can be enough to ruin you financially. And if you can’t pay, they can sue you, resulting in the loss of future income, and even your home. It just isn’t worth it to try to save a little bit of money.
Some companies will allow you to exclude a driver in your household, and that can be an option to try to cut costs, but we would caution you on using that option. When you exclude a driver, that means thatunder no circumstances are they allowed to drive. People have excluded a driver, and then forgotten that the driver is not allowed to drive, or figured it would be ok…just this once, only to find out that it isnever ok. Excluded means never!!
If you have a driver that is going to make your insurance rates skyrocket, please talk to your agent, and give careful thought to the best way to handle this situation. Mistakes can cost you for a long time to come.gents, we have discussed the problems with not wanting to rate young drivers on the policy. Many people try to do whatever they can to avoid paying for the age factor, as well as the bad driving record factor, when it comes to their insurance.
We can certainly understand your concerns, but the problems that come from neglecting to rate your young driver or the person with a bad driving record, can really come back to bite you, if you aren’t careful. When you sign your name on the insurance policy, you are saying that the information you have provided is true to the best of your knowledge. Now if you hSummer is upon us and I with it comes increased bicycle and pedestrian traffic, so I would like to take a moment to talk about safety for people who will be out on the roads and sidewalks again. Obviously, I want to stress to drivers that it is vital to be more alert, because there are more small children out now, since the weather is warmer, and especially when school lets out for the summer vacation. Children don’t always pay attention when they run across the street or are riding their bikes.
That said, I want to make a couple of points that many parents don’t want to hear. When a child runs across the street and is not at the crosswalk or other corner, and they get hit by a car,it is not the fault of the driver of the car. It used to be that if you hit a pedestrian, it was automatically your fault, but more and more, if not all states have now turned from that thought and have begun to look at who should and shouldn’t have been there. Believe me, the driver of the vehicle that hits a pedestrian or child on a bicycle, will forever wish they hadn’t, but that doesn’t always make it their fault. The only time the driver is at fault is if that pedestrian is in a cross walk, or on the sidewalk, of course. Parents need to talk to their children about watching for cars, because it can be very hard to stop a car in time to miss a child, especially if there is no warning that the child is going to run out into the street.
Another common accident scenario occurs when bicyclists believe that traffic laws don’t apply to them. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen people, kids and adults alike, in fact probably more adults than kids, who approach a stop sign or light, look both ways, and go straight through the intersection. That is illegal, and more importantly, it is dangerous. Several times I have seen people almost get hit, because they miscalculated the distance and the car was coming faster than they thought. Is it really worth your life to cross the street without stopping, just so you don’t have to put your foot down and then restart? Really??
Yes, drivers need to watch out for pedestrians and bicyclists all the time and even more in the summer, but pedestrians and bicyclists have a responsibility too. If you break the law and get hit by a car, no matter how bad the driver feels, it will not be their fault. It will be yours, and along with the injuries, you might just get a ticket too.
