A recent study showed, surprisingly, that auto insurance companies don’t seem to think much of the dangers of distracted driving. Getting a ticket for driving too slowly will cause your premiums to rise more than getting a ticket for texting and driving. Here are the opening paragraphs from an article in the Insurance Journal:
Insurance companies are finally putting a price on the risk of distracted driving, and it’s relatively cheap.
Last year, a ticket for using a mobile phone while driving added $226 to the average insurance policy, an increase of 16 percent, according to a new analysis from Zebra, a Texas-based startup that helps consumers weigh insurance rates. That’s up from just $23 in the span of two years, but still a lot less than some other violations.
Underwriters deem a range of relatively innocuous incidents and conditions far more dangerous. Driving too slowly, for instance, draws an average premium penalty of $345 a year, while passing a school bus will cost an additional $386 a year. Being old or being young is pricey, too; 80-year-old drivers pay about 22 percent more than the average driver, while 18-year-olds (or their parents) have to fork over almost three times the national average for coverage.
“The distracted penalty was shocking to us,” said Alyssa Connolly, Zebra’s director of market insights. “It seems incredibly low. … And I don’t think most people know you can even get a ticket for driving too slowly.”
