Drunk Driving in Britain Possibly Leading to Auto Insurance Woes
A new study that was conducted in Britain has found that ten percent of drivers say that they can safely drive after having consumed several or more drinks of alcohol. It also found that 25% of drivers have at one time or another driven their car while intoxicated.
These statistics are very shocking and show that drinking and driving is still a huge issue in the United Kingdom. Most people have been taught for decades that drinking and driving is a very dangerous thing to do. You can be arrested or become involved in an accident and harm yourself or someone else. With one quarter of the country’s population admitting to drinking and driving this has to concern auto insurance providers in the country. When people decide to drink and drive their perception and driving skills are lacking to say the least. Consuming excessive amounts of alcohol tends to cloud a person’s judgment and they can become tired and nod off when they are behind the wheel of a vehicle.
The mere fact alone that the number of people who are admitting this has increased in the last twelve months signals that insurers need to crack down on drivers who drink and drive. People who act irresponsibly not only endanger lives but they can cause the insurance rates of other drivers to go up as well.
Drinking and driving has become something that sadly many people are appalled at but now take jokingly when celebrities do it. Tabloid covers are always covered in celebrity mug shots due to DUI arrests. Society has almost become numb in a sense to the real consequences of drinking and driving because it has become a criminal offense that is now mainstream which is not acceptable.
Another surprising statistics that was revealed in the study was that more than a quarter of people said that they had knowingly been a passenger in a car with a driver who had consumed alcohol before driving. It is very dangerous to be a passenger in a vehicle that is being driven by a person who has been drinking. Many people die each year because they should have brought a designated driver with them who was sober. If you have been drinking then call a friend or family member to drive you home because driving is a responsibility and as such should be done with a sober mind.
Auto insurance companies have been very tough on drunk drivers and usually cancel their insurance policies as a way to punish them for being risky drivers. It is not really fair for auto insurance companies to have to financially clean up the messes that are left behind by drunk drivers that become involved in car accidents.
Summer is here and the number of people who drink and drive tends to increase. This is due to the fact that college students are on break and with more daylight hours in the summer, people tend to stay out later and party. Law enforcement officials in the United Kingdom and the United States need to implement more sobriety checkpoints so that drivers can be screened during the week to see if they are drinking and driving.
Insurance companies need to find ways to monitor drivers so that they can reduce the amount of DUI offenses that are being committed by their policy holders. Law enforcement needs to work in conjunction with insurance companies to help tackle the problem because when a quarter of the population is admitting to breaking the law then something needs to be done in order to stop it before it leads to more deaths.
Source:
News Sky
