Insurance Co. Rant.

[Adjuster]

There are many factors besides driving "habits" like tickets and what type of car you drive.
How many miles comes into the picture.
Where you drive and live.
What your credit score is. (Yep, poor credit, and your rates are higher because your more likely to cause an accident.)

What sucks is that for many years, the idea that speed kills has been forced into our minds by witless socialists. (Think Ralph Nader and his pack of buddies.) They chant speed kills, 55 stay alive, and speed causes accidents....

Bull. Driver inatention and lack of skill causes accidents. That's it boys and girls. Nothing more than those two things.
If your not paying attention to your driving, your going to wreck.
If your driving past your skill level, your going to wreck.

Speed is only a factor in the cause of loss, but often the accident would have happened at any speed. (I do agree that higher speeds can lead to some pretty radical crashes, but it's not the speed that caused the loss, it was the idiot behind the wheel.)

Good case in point are the rolling road blocks caused by brain dead blue hairs in the left lane. Yep, I do own the whole damn road, and I drive 5mph under the posted limit because Ralph told me "55, stay alive" and I belive him... Meanwhile, traffic backs up, people get impatient, and accidents happen as a result. (Lack of driver skill on the part of the slow fucker in the left lane, and the impatient driver who tries to go around, but does not make sure it's clear to do so.)

I'm of the mind that at a certain speed, other cars on the road are just moving pylons to drive around, but you have to keep in mind that many of those pylon drivers are not paying attention, drive like idots, or are just plain pissed that your passing them, and move over to block your progress.

If you want lower insurance rates I reccomend the following.
Pay your bills on time, every month, every year. (Good credit is better than no tickets actually.)
Get into the habit of scanning your mirrors, and blind spots while you drive. Fighter pilots call it situational awareness, and it's knowing what is around you in every direction, all the time. I have developed good habits to scan the gauges, mirrors and my blind spots. There is NEVER a time when someone comes up behind me that I don't know they are there, and have been watching them come up on me for awhile. Same with traffic ahead and beside me.

Adjusting claims for years has taught me to watch for driver actions and inattention that leads to accidents, and crap that can get you drawn into a collision. I can't tell you how many times I'm driving, watching the other drivers/cars and say to my wife, watch this ass hole get into an accident, and WHAP, there it is. Shit like jumping green lights, or trying to time yellow/red lights. Not paying attention at 4 way stop signs, or driving with your head in a cell phone or coffee cup will do it every time. I've seen blue hairs make left turns infront of motorcycles, and just before it happened, said to my wife, this slow bitch is not watching where she's going, she's looking at the driveway and house and I bet she turns infront of that bike... then smakola! Guy on the bike never had a chance. I stopped, and guess what? He's fine, bruised, but nothing broken, bike is a total, and she needs a new fender and door, a few hours on the hood, but her response just killed me. "You were not there till I hit you" Why were you speeding? I could see you coming, but you should not be going so fast young man, and you need to slow down. (I told this to the officer, and laughed when he wrote her the cite for failure to yield right of way, AND innatentive driving. (That's worse than reckless in most states, and like a 4 point moving violation, so basicly she got 6 points in one accident.) Best part is I stopped to see if the cyclist needed any help, and to give the PD my name as a witness incase there was a question about liability. The old BITCH driving the car was trying to say I was tailgating here, and that distracted her so she felt she had to make the turn infront of the bike. (I was pretty much on her ass for about 3 miles, but that was because she was going 10 to 15 UNDER the speed limit, weaving around the center lane, and it was a no passing zone, so I was stuck behind her slow ass while she tried to find the house she was looking for. I was not tailgating, and told the officer I was close, that's true, but I always maintain a 2 to 3 second gap between cars, as this generally gives you plenty of time to stop at any speed. (Think about it, as you go faster, 2 to 3 seconds becomes quite a distance.)

 

[Mark3Supraholic]

If anyone gets Car and Driver Magazine, it is usually a good read when it comes to the editor's columns. Recently Patrick Bedard wrote about the fact that the roundabout was being implemented in large numbers (about 12) just outside of Pheonix Arizona. Vail, Colorado is another place where roundabouts flourish. The rondabout is a traffic circle with a limit of 25mph. Apparently, road "designers" and I use that term loosely, think that such devices will cure high-traffic congestion. I say "designers" because there are 2 types of road builders, designers and engineers. Engineers go for efficiency, but designers tend to put aesthetics up front. The roundabout is definitely prettier than a standard 4-way intersection. Well, the idea is backed by the IIHS, so we can be SURE that the dreaded S-word is definitely in play. The S-word here is SLOW. The IIHS panders the idea that speed kills, STILL. The not-so-vehicularly inclined NHTSA director, Jeffrey Runge, doesn't spew that much garbage as much as the IIHS still does. I've seen surface street speed limits go from 40mph to 25mph around my area. But even so, a few of the cops I know agree that if you're doing 80-90mph on an Open freeway at 2am and show no signs of erratic driving, you're probably paying attention. What they HATE is people who swerve in and out of lanes because they tend to cause more accidents by "surprising" other motorists and sending them into a panic. Even worse is when the other motorist reacts too late. Then, CRUNCH. I could rant all day about the useless ness of the IIHS and how it being a "tool" for the insurance companies means that it's another way to raise your rates. As an insurance company, I'd find any excuse to get you to pay more, regardless if your actual propensity for damage is not that high. Farmer's has thus far done premium increases on me for apparently no reason a couple of times. The times I reported the two covered tickets. It could just be the agent, I don't know. All I know is I'm paying more right now and I could use an insurance company who actually cares about me and not $$. AS publicly traded companies, the responsibility is to the shareholders and not you. When I crashed my Integra, it was a single car accident with no real Damage to anything but my car. I junked the car and I thought no police report was filed. But Farmer's later hounded me about it and I told them I had no idea if a police report was filed or not and threatened to cancel for a refund of the 6 months I had already pre-paid. That was $1500 for full coverage. They backed off. Well I could also rant about CARB too. But Insurance companies need to change. In crashing my Integra I learned about vehicle limits. I drive attentively and never eat or talk on phones when driving. The entire system needs some change. I could go on and on, but I'm tired....