Using Cell Phones While Driving Increases Car Insurance Rates

Cell phones are the omnipresent electronic devices of this era, and multi-tasking is the byword of this generation. So, it is quite natural to see many people jovially chatting over the mobile phone or thumbing down instant jokes while negotiating the traffic on busy highways. It is a habit that spreads like the bushfire does in Australia. And in the long run, it is as deadly as well.

Studies have proved that drivers who use cell phones while driving are more prone to cause accidents. Many researchers have equated driving while using mobile phones (or is it the other way around?) to drunken driving. They say that in both cases, a person does not have enough focus and mental capacity to carry out a potentially dangerous activity like driving. If you also have this habit, do not shrug and dismiss this article as nonsense. There are many gains - both for you and for others - if you do away with this habit.

The Advantages Of Stopping Cell Phone Use While Driving

The primary advantage is that you are keeping a safe distance from accidents. It has been estimated through various studies that a person using cell phone is four times more likely to meet with an accident. The reasons for this are not hard to understand. One cannot focus fully on the road and the other vehicles, if one keeps on chatting on phone simultaneously while driving. Thumping, or writing text messages on the cell phone, is a doubly dangerous activity. It requires the driver to control the vehicle with one hand and half a mind.

Well, let us drive past the usual negative thoughts on the same subject, such as accidents can happen to anybody and other similar gospels. Just for the record, there are a number of people who have been driving without causing any major accident.

The second, and perhaps a more tangible, benefit is the reduced car insurance Canada premium. In many states in the USA, using cell phone while driving is a traffic offense that can get you a penalty ticket. The more the number of tickets you attract against your name, the higher will be the insurance premium. In these troubled times of economic recession, insurance companies are eagerly waiting for something to increase the insurance premium. They can easily track the tickets against your name, even if you got those in faraway locations.

The rules regarding this are not consistent across the country. Different states have different sets of rules. At present, seven states have banned talking through a handheld device and texting while driving for general public. But more states - 17, to be precise - have banned the use of mobile handset device for beginner drivers. Several states allow the person to use hands-free device for talking through the cell phone while driving. But it is strongly reminded that driving does not lend itself to multitasking.

Young drivers should be more conscious about the financial burden, if not the social troubles, that can be resulted from their cell-phone-induced driving. The rules regarding cell phone use are more stringent for the new drivers and the increase in the tax premium is steeper. The bottom line is that using cell phones while driving not only increases your phone bills, but raises your car insurance premium as well.