We all want the best car insurance rates. With rates getting higher and higher, as drivers we need to do everything we can to mitigate these rising costs. And one of the most important ways that we control this is in how we drive.

If you’ve ever had the misfortune of being held responsible car crash, you know first hand the effect on what you pay for your car insurance, not to mention any physical effects or damage to personal property.

It’s a lose-lose situation.

As we’ve discussed here extensively on the blog, in order to get the best car insurance rates, it is absolutely essential to stay out of the high risk driver designation.

Check out some of these resources for a further discussion on the topic…

~ Your Questions About Being a High Risk Driver in Ontario Answered

~ 7 Things You Need to Know as a High Risk Driver in Ontario

~ What You Need to Know About High Risk Auto Insurance

~ Insurance Terms Defined – High Risk Driver

Have you ever wondered, out of all the risky and aggressive driving behaviours, which tops the list as the most likely to actually cause a crash? A study from the University of Waterloo highlights just that (source: Canadian Underwriter).

And the winner is…

SPEEDING.

The university dug through the telematics data of 28 million car trips and discovered that of the top risky driving tactics such as hard braking, hard acceleration and hard cornering, speeding came out on top as the likeliest behaviour to result in a car accident, by a long shot. This is factual evidence that speed is a leading cause of collisions. It’s no longer just intuition that aggressive, high risk driving is of major concern.

The implications for drivers could be far reaching. Out of the study, Stefan Steiner, a statistics professor in the university’s math department, recommended that insurance companies specifically look at speeding when determining which drivers they will consider high risk. While we know that there are many factors insurers take in account when setting their car insurance rates, such as where the driver lives, the type of car they drive and how much driving experience they have (learn more in this post – 4 Factors that Affect Car Insurance Rates in Ontario), application of telematics technologies could result in a change in how insurers set their rates.

If risky driving behaviour, such as speeding, is being proven as a major catalyst of insurance claims thanks to this data collection, we could see a shift in the industry towards penalizing these types of behaviours through higher rates or the dreaded high risk auto insurance category. A speeding ticket could hold much more weight than it once did in terms of what insurance would cost for the offender. And if you throw distracted driving into the mix, such as speeding whilst looking at one’s phone, the risks are even more significant.

But the good news is that on the flip side, excellent, solid drivers could see more recognition for their good driving habits. And what could be better than getting the best car insurance rates?

Resource used for this post:

What’s the most dangerous form of driving? What telematics tells us… – Canadian Underwriter

Want more information about high risk auto insurance? Looking to get the best car insurance rates possible? Someone from our team would be happy to help! Get in touch with one of our insurance professionals. Or head over here to access our 24/7 online car insurance quote tool.

Image source: FreeDigitalPhotos.net | sephirot17