Car Insurance Sort Blog

Holidays are a prime time for stealing cars, according to Insurance News Net’s article “Vehicle Thieves Rarely Take a Holiday.”  Their information comes from an annual report by the National Insurance Crime Bureau.  New Year’s Day is the holiday when the most cars are stolen, followed by Halloween and the Fourth of July in the second and third spots.  Memorial Day, President’s Day, Labor Day, New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, and Christmas Eve were in the center of the list.

While we celebrate and enjoy friends and family, car insurance companies worry about thieves out to ruin our day and up the cost of insurance  for everyone by stealing cars.  Christmas Day and Thanksgiving day were the holidays with the lowest numbers of stolen cars, so I guess thieves celebrate sometimes as well.  2009 was not the first year that New Year’s Day saw the highest amount of thefts of any holiday.  It seems to be a popular day for car thieves every year.

Luckily for insurers like Dairyland auto insurance, car thefts have declined for the past six years and data suggests that 2010 has followed suit and will be the seventh straight year for a decline.  There were 22,991 cars stolen on the 11 holidays in 2009 versus 24,676 stolen on those same holidays in 2008.  Even so, it is important to play it safe with your vehicle, especially on holidays.  Thieves not only steal cars, but may steal the belongings inside.  Always lock your car, try to park in well-lit areas, and keep any valuable items out of sight to protect yourself from theft.

From press release “Federal and Local Government Cracking Down on Texting While Driving,” drivers should leave their phones alone while on the road.  Car insurance companies have always urged drivers to be more careful on the roads by avoiding eating, changing the radio station, interacting with passengers, or talking on the phone.  More recently, texting while driving has become just as dangerous as those other distractions.

An Executive Order this year has banned all government employees from texting while driving in government vehicles that are owned, rented or leased.  They also cannot text in their own vehicles if they are on company business or using company cell phones.  Penalties will be enforced by those breaking the law by the end of this year.

By the start of 2010, at least twenty-one states will have laws that ban texting while driving.  That is good news for Dairyland Auto Insurance Company and other car insurance companies.  The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles reported almost 30,000 car crashes due to distracted drivers.  Over 100 people were killed in these crashes and close to 15,000 were injured.  Drivers are encouraged to leave the cell phones off and concentrate on the road to avoid car crashes and higher insurance rates.