It would be nice to dream, but impaired driving will always be the single biggest issue that property & casualty insurers have to deal with regarding their policyholders, but other challenges keep coming our way. In the last decade, as text messaging and social media have blossomed as communication skills for people under the age of 30, distracted driving is taking its place just behind alcohol as the biggest challenge facing law enforcement and personal auto insurers.
It used to be that when a bad accident occurred, particularly with a teenager involved, observers would jump to the conclusion that somehow the teenager got his or her hands on some alcohol. Today, though—for teenagers at least—distracted driving is looked to first as the biggest culprit.
Parents can swear up and down that their children know better than to text or use social media tools such as Twitter or Facebook while driving, but as we all know one simple truth: Kids lie to their parents. Yes, it's true and if you don't believe me, take a trip down memory lane back to recall your own days as a teenager—the real stories, please, not the ones that you have edited for your children's sake or because of embarrassment.
Fortunately, there is something that can be done about distracted driving. Technology giveth, and technology taketh away. Distracted driving apps—whether attached to cell or smartphones or installed in the vehicle itself—are certainly less expensive than the deductible on a damaged fender or—even worse—a life. I'm pretty sure underwriters look kindly on personal auto policies for families that address the distracted driving issue.
Unfortunately, installing such a device for your teenager won't make you the cool parent. And your child's pals probably won't want to go anywhere in your teen's car because the system usually disables every phone in the vehicle. I think we'd all agree that is a small price to pay.
We have every reason to worry about the safety of our teenagers, but the fact is these apps should be in place for all adult drivers, too. I'm certain your teen is much more adept at using their smartphone than you are. (Making or receiving a phone call while driving is a difficult maneuver for me.)
The number of insurers offering such a tool to consumers continues to grow as people recognize this is an issue that cannot be ignored. It took a coalition of mothers to get this nation to finally address the enforcement of drunk-driving laws and thank God for their leadership—which usually came as a result of something tragic happening. We shouldn't need a coalition on distracted driving, but it is certainly a welcome force.
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