“We acknowledge that some drivers said that they didn’t report accidents because they wanted to protect their no claims discount. But many insurers, including Privilege, offer a no claims discount protection which means that suffering a minor incident needn’t affect a premium.”

Privilege has compiled five top tips to help drivers avoid minor accidents:

• Drive slowly and keep within the speed limit – driving on a dry road at 20mph will still take you three car lengths to stop. On a wet or muddy road, double the stopping distance.
  
• Always use indicators, even when driving slowly, such as in car parks.
  
• Avoid reversing out of parking spaces and look carefully.  Try to choose ‘pull-through’   spaces (where two rows of cars are parked facing each other, look for two connected spots so that you can end up facing the direction you will drive away in).
  
• When parallel parking, err on the side of caution and judge your position visually (avoid knocking the vehicles in front or back or the curb).
• When night-time parking, face your car with the direction of traffic flow, unless in a specified parking space.
  

Privilege specialises in offering highly competitive insurance for safe drivers, with a guarantee to beat renewal quotes for any driver with 4 years + no claims discount. For a competitive Privilege quote, visit Privilege Car Insurance

Notes 

This news story applies to England, Scotland & Wales only.

The research was carried out online between 18th -21st March 2005.  YouGov interviewed a total of 2,124 UK adults.  Results were weighted to be representative of the GB population

Of those interviewed who said they were drivers, 38% were involved in an accident or incident during 2004 and of these, 64% did not report the incident to either the police or their insurance company (11% of respondents reported it to both, 21% to the insurance company only and 5% to the police alone).  In pure numbers, 610 of all respondents had an accident in 2004. 64% of 610 is 390, divided by total drivers (1602) = 24.36%.

Sample now includes drivers past and present who have been involved in an incident in the past five years. The adult GB population is 44,020,057 (Census 2001).  Of these, 75% currently drive (33,015,043).  33,015,043 x 24.36% = 8,045,613.  In addition, those who were not drivers or were drivers who did not report any accidents occurring in 2004 were asked if, in the last five years, they had failed to report an incident involving their vehicle at any time (i.e. 1581 of

Road casualties in Great Britain 2003

Road casualties in Great Britain 2004

Collation of motor insurance figures: 1996-2002

So to give the highest number of accidents recorded in official statistics: 205,440 + 4,250,000= 4,455,440 divided by 33,015,043 = 0.1350 = 13.5%

Sources:
http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk, http://www.bbc.co.uk/motoring/ontheroad/safedriving/countryroads.shtml,
http://www.smartmotorist.com/prk/prk.htm,
http://www.hertsdirect.org/roadtrans/rsu/driving/advice/driverhb/driverhbpark/