Why young drivers aren’t at fault for high insurance prices

Posted on September 18, 2018 by Darren Slate

It is unfortunately a fact that young and inexperienced drivers are often blamed for the increased price of car insurance. For many years now insurance companies have openly been biased against young drivers and they use statistics to back up their inflated insurance premiums. It is a fact that there are some startling statistics that go against young drivers including;

It is estimated that one in three drivers who die in a road accident are under the age of 25.
A staggering one in five drivers has an accident within their first year of driving.
The largest recorded reason for deaths amongst youngsters aged between 16 – 25 is road accidents.
It is estimated that the current claim size for a person aged between 17 – 19 is almost three times that of a mature driver aged between 30 – 50.
In a recent survey carried out by Admiral Insurance it was found that a driver aged between 17 – 21 is four times more likely to receive a conviction for careless driving than the average driver.
In 2011 the Police released figures showing that the proportion of young drivers under the age of 25 failing or refusing a breath test had risen by as much as 15 % in one year.

Whilst all of this information is compelling and hard to argue with, are young drivers solely to blame for inflated insurance premiums? It has almost always been the case that young drivers have had worse statistics than those aged over 25 so why has this suddenly caused a dramatic change to all motorists’ insurance premiums?

Is it not more the case that false insurance claims are largely to blame for the rise in insurance premiums? We are all aware of the ‘where there’s blame there’s a claim’ industry that seems to have surfaced in recent years. This industry is currently making a fortune out of insurance companies for false claims made by motorists who are encouraged to make a quick quid from whiplash claims. Are insurance companies doing enough to protect motorists from these companies? Quite simply they are not.

You don’t even have to contact one of these companies when you’ve had an accident as it is likely they will contact you. These companies buy your details from insurance companies and know when you have had an accident. They will then contact you and push you to create a claim that is just not necessary. It is these claims that help to increase motorists insurance premiums to cover. Reports have shown that the amount of accidents on the road have decreased year on year. However, injury claims as a result of road accidents has increased by as much as 25 % which can only be linked to the rise in claims management companies.

It is a definite unfair claim to blame young drivers for the increase in insurance premiums as it would seem that the increased injury claims costs insurance companies a far greater amount of money than young drivers.