Making in-sure: Why Car Insurance is a must Thursday, July 24, 2008

One undeniable truth about modern life in the UK is that driving is an established part of the everyday routine and hugely important for those who rely on their cars. In fact, in 2006, 81% of men and 63% of women in Great Britain held a full car driving licence.

There is, then, a clear majority of those who do drive as opposed to those who don’t. This highlights that, despite small fluctuations, there has been a steady rise in the number of drivers on the UK’s roads for many years – when the statistics are compared with the same numbers 30 years earlier, only 29% of women and 69% of men could legally drive.

Surprisingly, an increase in other forms of travel hasn’t altered the steady increase in the usage of cars. In terms of road travel for example, bus and coach traffic increased by 53% between 1980 and 2006, motorcycle traffic increased by 38% between 1996 and 2006 and even pedal cycle traffic, between 2000 and 2006, grew from 4.2 to 4.6 billion vehicle kilometres, the highest since 1992.

The majority of the growth in road usage, however, has been in car traffic. Since 1980, there has been an 87% rise, with 402 billion kilometers being traveled in 2006 by cars alone. It seems they remain, and become increasingly, essential to the average Brit. This need to drive, however, can have unfortunate effects. With so many people contributing to road usage, a certain number of collisions are obviously expected. In 2006, there were around 189,000 road accidents, with around £8 billion of insurance claims to compensate for the resulting damage.

Accidents are so prevalent because there are so many causes, from falling asleep to adverse weather conditions, from playing music to tiredness, from drink and drugs to using mobile phones. Even a whole range of animals have been blamed for accidents. Motorists have blamed cats, dogs, deer, rabbits and even bees for causing accidents from which claims have been made.

There are, however, plans to construct a car that is effectively ‘crash proof’. Volvo are developing a vehicle that, aside from having the best in-vehicle safety systems, will actually be able to avoid crashing at all, by monitoring other road users and avoiding hazards, even being able to move out of the path of other cars when in danger. Although the car will not be on general sale for a few years, it represents the continued efforts to protect not only drivers and passengers, but vehicles too.

Until then, car insurance will continue to be the only option to protect against accidental damage. Indeed, it is illegal to drive without having protection, due to the sheer number of accidents every day that have to be paid for. With driving maintaining its importance for so many of the UK’s population, minor mishaps will, inevitably, continue to be a danger, so drivers should be covered when those mishaps happen.