Program Cuts Car Insurance Rates, if Insurer Can Monitor Your Driving Habits

WOAI ^ | 7/21/09 | Jim Forsyth

[Colonel Kangaroo]

I’m afraid habitual speeders often have the maturity level of a two year old when it comes to their desire to want to drive as fast as they want. Many probably did not get enough discipline when young in order to instill a respect for the law and the ingrained manners which give rise to a natural respect for the other guy.

[Clay Moore]

Try getting in an accident with one of their policy holders.

They refused to pay fair market value for my totaled vehicle. I told them to provide me with a list of 3-5 vehicles in the same condition that I could buy for what they were trying to give me. They refused.

Then when I bought it back and fixed it, I had to wait something like 2 months before they would release my CLEAR title back to me.

One of my wife’s friends got low balled the same way.

I will do everything I can to lose these dirt bags as much business as I can.

[Alberta's Child]

I see nothing wrong with this, since it is a voluntary program involving a private company and its customers.

This isn't much different than the initiative where auto insurance companies in some states offer discounts if policy holders voluntarily agree to a cap on non-monetary damages related to auto accidents.

[jwparkerjr]

My wife has been a preschool director for over 30 years. Every year for 30 plus years she's watched kids show up for their first day of school and then watched as they adjusted to the schedule. It's very enlightening, but depressing, to hear her describe the changes that have taken place in what's expected of a child now compared to when she first entered the profession. These are kids who don't have any idea how to share, how to wait their turn, how to say please or thank you, the list just goes on and on.

It comes as no surprise to her that public highways and byways are becoming a no-man’s-land, inhabited by more and more two-year-old's in adult bodies driving adult machines. They see the police the same way they saw their parents and other authority figures. They feel they have to obey the rules, laws, only if someone can make them do it. To them, it's not breaking the law or a rule to do so if you don't get caught. And when you do get caught it's NEVER your fault. You're always the victim, never responsible for anything that happens to you.

You should see the parents’ reactions early in the school year when she speaks in her ‘principal’ tone of voice to one of the kids who delights in ignoring their parents! Some of them have actually come to think that making a child behave and avoid risky behavior is a form of child abuse!

I could go on and on, but I'm pretty sure I'm preaching to the choir.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

You sum it up well. The pandemic speeding on the highways is part of a larger problem in the world. And I wish more parents would realize the importance of training their kids from the beginning. As your wife’s account shows, the moral battle is well on its way to being won or lost even by the time kids reach preschool.