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Will smokers pay more for auto insurance?
Posted by cpupulse • 1/14/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: auto insurance, premiums
It is said that in the UK drivers caught smoking will be fined and have higher auto insurance premiums put on them. What your take on it?
If you could take the poll on my blog it would greatly be appreciated. Thanks in advance
autoprotection.blogspot.com
User Comments
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Would have to talk to my friends across the pond to get their take on it. -
My take is it's another scam by a government to get their greedy hands on peoples money.-
Government? This is more about insurance premiums and safety behind the wheel if I read the post right even if traffic fines are involved. Sorta like using cell phones while driving. If they've got good evidence that smokers are impaired drivers strictly because they're taking eyes off the road to grab a cigarette and light it, then I'd be less inclined to believe in the scam theory, although I admit we should raise an eyebrow to the possibility. There's also that huge push to get people to quit smoking. I'm a supporter in that regard for two reasons. I'm in medicine and I understand the morbidity and mortality risks associated with the habit as well as the health care costs that could be saved over there in the UK under a national health system. If anything, it would save the government and taxpayers money from that point of view. I also literally can't breathe anywhere near the stuff, even when the person driving in front of me is smoking and I have my windows up.
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Yes government. Whatever happened to the freedom to be stupid? If you can't breath near a smoke, leave. I do. They have the right to smoke. Simple as that. Just as you have the right to leave the area. And before you say they can just leave, obviously not because you don't even want them smoking in their own PRIVATE property, their cars. What's next? Ban them from flushing the toilet more than 3 times a day? Because that's where the world is heading. To a totalitarian utopia where everyone is happy because no one knows better.
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The "just leave" take on smoking to point out their right to smoke leaves out the little thing about my right to be in the same public place. It's a tangled web if you want to use the chipping away at society leading to the extreme totalitarian control of the world, and then we've got other issues to sort out with you. The car thing isn't about their right to smoke, but rather whether or not it affects safety on the road silly. Remember, the original post mentioned both traffic fines and insurance premiums, but you're jumping all over that government conspiracy stuff like no other. Let's keep both of them in the discussion at the same time shall we?
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BassDem - Can you please explain how you can't breath someone's smoke in the car in front of you if your windows are rolled up? No offense because I don't know you, but that almost sounds like a mental thing. I mean, come on. I would think you'd be more concerned about inhaling the fumes from the cars in front of you. There's stuff in the air eating holes in the ozone layer and people are bothered by someone's smoke as they pass for what, ten seconds? We all have rights and being in public means someone somewhere is apt to offend you.
And by the way, did you know you can easily reach for and light a cigarette without taking your eyes off the road. Let's get people for putting on make-up in the car too. That's more dangerous than lighting a stupid cigarette.
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depends on what theyre smokin' -
Sounds to me like just another way to stick it to smokers. What they need to test people for is common sense which isn't common any more. How about increasing insurance premiums based on your common sense. Common sense says you don't use the cell phone if it's not safe to do so. Common sense says if you're doing anything that distracts you from driving safely you don't do it. Some people can put on make-up and drive, some can't. Some can talk and drive and some need to shut up and pay attention.
Yep. Sounds like lets stick it to smokers every chance we get. On my way to check out your poll. -
Everything making smoking more expensive is a big plus. -
what if they are chewing nicotine gum do they get fined? -
What would be the rational for such a fine? Are they really claiming it distracts drivers? Last I heard, nicotine increases concentration. Smoking is a dirty, filthy habit, but I don't understand the concept being polled about here.
And how does insurance fit into this? How could a government impose higher rates, especially in a market-driven economy like Britain's? This makes no sense to me. Is it even for real? -
Glad I dont drive, bad enough a trucker cant smoke in his cab never mind. What about the ones who eat sandwiches, change a cd, put the radio on, turn to their kids in the back, fart and waft it about or turn to their passengers.-
A trucker can't smoke in his cab? Okay, I'm big on no smoking laws, but that is ridiculous.
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In the UK your not allowed to smoke in a works vehicle
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Why?
By the way, does "works vehicle" mean any vehicle that is part of your job? I've never heard the term before. -
Yes anywhere that you could come in contact with some one else getting in the vehicle or the chance someone else will drive it. Works vehicle is any vehicle related to a job of any sort. I work from home and if I smoked inside it would be against the law during my work hours.
My nan used to get told to smoke outside her house when a nurse came to see my grandad when he was alive. Thats just silly an 80 year old woman sent out into the wet and cold from her own house. -
Cabs are public transportation, right? Why on earth should my lungs be filled with smoke if I want to take a cab?
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Cabs I think are a special case since its presupposed that other people WILL, by design, be sitting inside the vehicle. -
Cab as in Taxi Thomas sorry should word it better.
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Edit what I wrote again, cab as in lorry driver cab
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When I applied for my car insurance, they didn't have any option mentioning smoker..
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This is becoz it is happening right now in the UK, which soon could be happening here in the US if insurance companies follow the same policies as the UK in the future.
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My opinion is that it has to be as distracting as being on the mobile without a hands free kit. It takes a hand off the wheel and occupies the smokers mind. Further, often littering occurs of discarded ash and cigarette butts on the street.
I think it should be banned, and any method to enforce the ban is prudent. -
It is putting other people in danger, just by the risk of dropping your cigarette, burning yourself and then losing control of the vehicle, hitting and possibly killing another person in another car or pedestrian.
I think they should have banned the use of cigarettes in cars before they banned cell phones. Both are high risk potential for accidents though.-
So is altering the station on the radio that was around years and years before mobile phones
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Ah, this is true. Now they have those stereos - I think it's called, "Sync", where you just tell it the name of the song or whatever - and it gives it to you without touching anything. Although it'll cost ya an arm and a leg...not in the way the conventional radio would.....literally. Hrmm. Tough call.
I think we should go back to the horse and buggy. A much simpler time. -
It's my understanding that rates have always been different for smokers and non-smokers in the U.S.--or at least in some U.S. states. Most U.S. insurance companies, though, don't ever cop to charging higher rates for anything; rather, you get a "discount" for being a non-smoker. The theory behind this is (or at least is purported to be) that it's a distraction that increases the likelihood of an accident. Having been rear-ended at a toll booth a few years ago by a woman with a cigarette in one hand and a cell phone in the other (which leaves...um...how many hands to drive?) I'm not sure that it's ENTIRELY misplaced, but it's largely an excuse to charge more money. U.S. drivers definitely pay more for automobile insurance if they have low credit scores, and to my knowledge no one has ever even attempted to suggest a logical correlation there.-
I've never been asked if I was a smoker or not for car insurance no matter which state I was in. Health yes, but not car. And often I've started insurance policies online and not in person so they couldn't just assume by the lack of stench.
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If you read the blog post bsd13, it clearly states that the insurance companies found that smokers had more accidents. Apparently it's not as easy as you think to reach for the lighter. This is not just gov't sticking it to smokers. Visit the original poster's blog and read. As for the "mental thing" you think I have, I can smell the cigarette smoke of someone smoking in front of me who has their window down. It blows back and gets into my car and I can smell it. I just do. It's not like I notice a smoker in front of me and then smell it. I smell it and then look at the car in front of me. It's not when they pass. It's usually in a one lane situation where they are in front of me for more than just a few seconds. And as a matter of fact, I do have the same problem with car fumes from cars in front of me as well.
@stoneman, I don't think it's gov't imposing the higher rates. They're just adding a traffic fine for smoking. The insurance companies are the ones talking about the rate hikes when they have data that supports certain characteristics (ie: smoking) are associated with unsafe driving practices. I take MadameX's point into consideration that nonsmokers should receive the discounted rates instead.
I'd love to get the crowd here going on CCTV. If you've ever lived in the UK, you know about CCTV. -
And I agree with the makeup comment bsd. I know someone who went off the road while putting on makeup. Thing is, more people are smoking while driving than women who are prettying up their faces.
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CCTV where they reakon that you cant walk more than 28 metres with out being on camera in ANY built up area in the UK
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