Confusion is the enemy to safety. That's why distraction free environments are one of the keys to safe driving.
One of the ways you can get cheaper car insurance is to keep your driving record accident free. A top priority in this regard is to keep your driving environment distraction free. In today’s fast food, communication laden age, that’s no easy task. There are always phone calls, a burger on your lap, and texts and IMs to contend with, not to mention the age old distractions of kids in the back seat or the hot looking guy / gal in the convertible next to you.
The subject of texting while driving has been in the news quite a bit over the previous year. Car and Driver Magazine even did a feature article on it. You may not believe it, but texting while driving is more dangerous that driving moderately (but legally) drunk for many people. Many of those same people who would never even think of hopping behind the wheel when even the tiniest bit tipsy routinely send and receive text messages while navigating in and out of traffic.
So, if you want to keep your insurance costs down, keep the qwerty keyboard firmly in the console, where it belongs, not in your hands, where your thumbs can concoct a novel in 140 characters faster than you can score a touchdown against the Lion’s defense.
Here are some other great tips to keep you driving safely behind the wheel, and make sure your car insurance is as cheap as possible -
Tip to Drive Safely – Make sure you’re not too tired to drive. In today’s fast paced society driving while tired (DWT) is an increasingly common phenomenon. Over 100,000 people every year get into accidents because they’ve simply dozed off while driving. You may think that only happens during late night stints on some deserted freeway, but it can hit (no pun intended) much closer to home.
I actually had one of my employees drive one of our service vans into a parked car in our parking lot because he simply fell asleep – at 10:00 in the morning! Thankfully he was only going about 10mph at the time of the collision, but he could have just as easily hit a pedestrian instead of a parked BMW (yes, it really was). Even at 10mph, a pedestrian is going to lose against a mini van.
Be sure you are not overly tired before climbing behind the wheel. The life and car you save may well be your own.
Another tip to keep you safe and accident free is to do more than simply check your mirrors before you change lanes; actually look to the side to see if someone found their way into your blind spot. It takes only a ½ second and you could easily avoid an accident that way.
Use your navigator to do the dirty work for you. I’m not talking about the Garmin on your dash, I’m referring to the bloke occupying the passenger seat. They’re your co-driver. Let them do what a co-driver does; enter addresses into the nav unit, change CDs, iPOD songs or radio stations, answer the phone, or generally do anything that takes your attention from the road. Keeping your attention on the road 100% of the time is paramount to keeping your car out of the gutter; that’s where you mind belongs, not your car.
Staying accident free is one of the most important things you can do to keep your car insurance as cheap as possible, not to mention all the other benefits you get by avoiding accidents.
