| Can extra car safety features reduce your insurance premium and help prevent whiplash?
Every driver wants to reduce their car insurance premiums and build up a no claims bonus. Insurance companies often offer insurance discounts to those who have completed recognised advanced driver training, but if your car is fitted with additional safety features, can this reduce your premium further?
The simple answer is not necessarily. Most manufacturers consider car safety equipment such as anti-lock brakes, traction control, automatic seatbelt warnings and airbags to be additional extras. As a result, many insurance companies will only consider safety technology when a car is launched and then only those systems which come as standard and cannot be switched off. Some systems, particularly traction control, can be turned on and off by the driver depending on their driving style and the road conditions at the time. Therefore these do not technically count as 'safety features' but as 'optional extras'.
The insurers also look at the safety performance of models, taking into account their ENCAP rating and their charted performance over an extended period of production and use. If a particular model is shown to be less likely to be involved in an accident over a period of time, the insurance premium is then adjusted regardless of any additional safety features the car may have as standard.
However, some manufacturers are producing standard safety features that are having an impact on their insurance rating. One major manufacturer has developed a 'City Safety' system, which can detect possible collisions at low speed and prepare the brakes. If the driver doesn't take action to avoid a collision, the system takes over and brakes the car automatically. It is hoped that 'intelligent' systems such as this will reduce the number of rear end collisions, which are often the cause of car accident whiplash injuries.
Whiplash claims account for nearly £2billion of payouts by insurance companies in the UK annually, and 75% of motor personal injury claims are made as a result of whiplash injuries, usually at very low impact speeds. The Association of British Insurers estimate that there are 1,200 claims a day for car accident whiplash injuries, six times the number of workplace related injury claims.
Further research into the causes and definitions of whiplash injuries are also being carried out by Thatcham, who have developed the WITkit. The WITkit is a computerised program that gives insurers detailed information of the likelihood of whiplash injuries by analysing the results of impact tests of different cars and car seats at low speeds. By analysing this data, manufacturers will be able to incorporate new safety features as standard into their latest models, including redesigning seats and head restraints. As these alterations will come as 'standard' and are not something that can be controlled by the driver, this may help to reduce car insurance premiums in the long run.
The onus still remains on the driver. No matter how many safety features a car may have, the driver is ultimately responsible for the car and its use on the road. Better driving skills result in a reduced likelihood of becoming involved in an accident and this is why insurers have traditionally focused on this aspect to determine insurance premiums. Consequently, more experienced drivers have lower insurance premiums than younger, inexperienced drivers do and this doesn't look like changing any time soon. But as technology advances drivers may see their premiums reduce in the future as manufacturers incorporate more safety features as standard on their cars.
For further information, please visit http://www.1stclaims.co.uk |
