5 Mistakes That Most Of Us Make When Driving

After you have a bit of experience, driving a car becomes a sort of second nature activity, like walking or chewing gum.  We can do it pretty well even without realizing that we are doing it.  Over time, especially without an accident or mishap to get our attention, we can all develop an overconfidence about driving and our skill set whether we do it well or not.   Here then, is an opportunity for you to honestly and fairly evaluate your own driving skills with the one person that you can’t lie to: yourself.  Take a quick look at these top 5 driving mistakes that we all make from time to time, and perhaps  it can serve as a reminder to avoid these driving behaviors.

One thing most of us forget is that the process of driving a vehicle is usually the most dangerous activity that we will do in any given day.  Since we go years and years without a mishap or accident it is easy to forget this.  But, whether you take notice of it or not,  every time you get behind the wheel you are at risk for making a mistake that could be catastrophic or even fatal for you.  So taking time every now and then to honestly evaluate your own driving habits with yourself is a practice that might save your life or the life of someone else.

One of the most common driving errors that many of us make is following too closely.    Some drivers use tailgaiting as a way of emphasizing their hurry to the driver in front of them.  Some people drive too closely to the car in front of them simply as a matter of habit.  I’ve seen drivers who move right up to the next car in front of them, regardless of their speed,  not because they are in a hurry, but because this is their default setting for how fast to drive in any situation.  When faced with an open road ahead, these drivers are probably not sure just how fast they should go.  If you who commute to work on a highway, and are forced to spend an extra half hour in traffic on the way home, most of the time it is because someone ahead of you was following too close.

Stopping instead of yielding.   This is a case of overly cautious behavior generating risk.  Drivers make assumptions about what other drivers will do based on assumed behavior.  Deviation from assumed behavior then puts other drivers at risk.   The most common place we see this is on the acceleration ramp for entering a highway.  Inexperienced drivers often have trouble with this and simply come to a stop instead of blending into the flow of the traffic on the highway.  This is dangerous, not only for the stopped car, but for the cars behind that are not expecting a car in front of them to stop.  This is also sometimes a problem at traffic circles where a driver’s attention should be on the cars to the left in the circle as opposed to the car in front of them which they assume will not stop if the way is clear.

Trusting Your Mirrors.  I am guilty of this mistake from time to time.  It takes more effort to look over your shoulder when changing lanes, especially when you have checked all of your mirrors and you don’t see anyone coming.  But if you have had the scary experience of starting to make a lane change, only to hear the honking of the car beside you, then you will understand just how dangerous it is not to take that backwards glance before you change lanes.   This is a habit that takes effort but could save your life.

Failing to Yield on Green.  The green light means go of course, but some intersections seem to be worse than others in terms of cars running the red light.  Experience will help here but you should always be cautious when moving through an intersection.  Intersection accidents often result in terrible injuries and you can avoid this by being more aware of everything going on outside of the green light itself.

Multi-Tasking and driving.  This is one of my pet peeves. These days we think of cell phones but I remember being frightened at all the things my wife would do while commandeering a car with three small, demanding and often hungry children in it.  Now  I personally stopped using my phone in my car about 2 years ago. That’s a personal choice of course but usually when I see someone driving poorly, when I get closer I almost always notice that they have their phone in their hand.   Keeping your focus on the driving that you are engaged in could save your life or someone else’s, so really it is worth the effort.

At Clinard Insurance Group, we want all drivers on the road to finish their errands and come home safely to their loved ones.  I hope these tips will help keep you aware of the importance of staying engaged in your task of driving while you are operating a motor vehicle.  If you would like help with your car insurance, your home insurance, your life insurance or even your business insurance, I hope you will give us a call, toll free, at 877-687-7557.

Volunteer Wrongful Acts Insurance Coverage – Should You Add This To Your Homeowners Insurance Policy?

America is a land of volunteers.   Almost everyone you know has volunteered somewhere at some point in his or her life and many people have regular work as volunteers each week.  But have you ever considered that your volunteer work could  get you into financial  trouble?  There are several areas of liability that can arise from volunteering from acts as a director or officer of a non-profit all the way down to minor clerical errors that could lead to personal liability risks for the volunteer.  Here I discusses a relatively new insurance coverage form that can be added to some homeowners insurance policies called volunteer wrongful acts insurance coverage.

Let’s start with a definition.  What is a wrongful act as defined by the volunteer wrongful acts coverage endorsement?  The endorsement defines this term as an actual or alleged error, misleading statement, act or omission, neglect or breach of duty committed by any insured during the policy period in the insured’s capacity as a volunteer.  If we break that definition down we see that the act must have occurred as the result of your volunteer work and that it can be either an alleged or an actual error.  It could even  be an omission or simply a breach of your duty as a volunteer.

I think an example is a good way to understand this risk and the insurance protection we are discussing.  Assume that you are a treasurer for a local nonprofit and you make an honest error in calculations that indicates that the nonprofit has more money to spend on a project than they actually have in the bank.  The project is approved based on your numbers and contracts are signed and the project gets underway.  Soon it is discovered that your error is going to generate huge expenses for your nonprofit due to the contracts that were signed for the project.  Suddenly you find yourself on the wrong side of a lawsuit with your nonprofit for the cost of these damages.  If you had added volunteer wrongful acts coverage to your homeowners insurance policy, then you would have protection for this loss. 

If this sounds like a coverage that you need, then you should contact your insurance agent and have them add it to your homeowners insurance policy.  Be sure that you understand the limits of coverage that can be provided.  Not every insurance company will allow this endorsement to be added to the policy and most will have limitations on how much protection you can buy.   So even though you may have a $300,000 personal liability limit on your homeowners insurance, this endorsement may limit you protection to $50,000 or perhaps $100,000.   You should also ask if your umbrella insurance policy will pick up coverage where this endorsement leaves off.  In most cases I have found that it will not do so.

Volunteering is a wonderful act of generosity and we should all encourage this kind of behavior as much as possible.  Unfortunately the law can still put you in a vulnerable position when you volunteer so you need to make sure that you have the protection you need to make sure that you are just giving your time and not your personal assets. At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC we can help you add this protection to your homeowners insurance policy.  Please call us toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.ClinardInsurance.com.