A good number of us are addicted to social networking sites, but if you’re updating your status from behind the wheel, you’re endangering your life – and the lives of others.
No one’s going to tell you that you can’t go ahead and spend an hour or so draining down the batteries in your smartphone so you can obsessively post messages to Twitter or comment on the latest stupid cat picture one of your mates posted on Facebook. But it’s utter madness to be behind the wheel in heavy traffic, texting away, and using car insurance and van insurance companies are now handing down massive rate increases if you’re found to be participating in the activity.
Insurers are so concerned about how dangerous the activity could be that they’ve routinely begun rising rates more than they would for someone convicted of a drink driving offence. Not only that, but there are some insurers that are flat-out refusing to offer cover at renewal time for anyone who demonstrates the poor judgment of checking their Facebook news feed while driving.
Cheap insurance is hard enough to find as it is, what with insurers constantly raising their rates so they can recover their costs from a record number of insurance claims; it may be tempting to go ahead and just take a peek while you’re driving, but you’re contributing to the problem if you’re doing so, because you’re much more likely to end up in a road traffic accident if you take your eyes off the road to use your mobile. You can’t even claim that you’re a careful driver otherwise – because you’re doing exactly the opposite of what a careful driver would do, aren’t you?
