Is Car Insurance for the Student Driver Sufficient?
Reader question:
I’ve already added my 17 year old, Mike, to our car insurance policy, but I’m still worried that this won’t keep him safe. What do I do?
Greg
That’s a normal concern.
A lot of parents get really worried when it’s time for their teenager to get out on the road, and just purchasing car insurance for the student driver won’t make that worry go away. However, there is another way to make sure that you can feel comfortable with your child driving and making the most out of owning the car insurance policy, and that is by creating a parent-teen driving contract before purchasing a car and insurance.
Draw something up on a piece of paper and have your teenager sign it before you are willing to add your kid to your insurance or even just let them take the car around the block. It sould be understood that accidents can happen anywhere, and nobody should continue in the mindset that there’s no way that they could get into a car wreck, because even though it can be avoided in many ways, there are plenty of situations where it is chance.
Some important issues should be struck on in your parent-teen car insurance/driving contract, mainly:
- Drinking and driving. It should be part of the contract that your kid if not only unable to drink and drive, but not allowed to drive while there are drunk people in his car. Many traffic accidents happen because of the antics of drunk passengers who aren’t alert enough to understand the consequences of their actions distracting or interfering with the sober driver in some way.
- Attention. Being aware of your surroundings is especially important for new drivers, so special emphasis should be placed on this. That means no cell phones while your foot’s on the gas and no music so loud that you can’t hear the sounds of traffic.
- Obeying the law. It might seem okay to speed just once when you think there are no cops around, but there’s always one hiding. Your child keeping their driving record in good standing is important, both for you because you’re paying for his car insurance, and for him later on while he’s stll young and not making a lot of money and won’t be able to afford the higher rates for people with bad records.
When drawing up a contract like this, your teenager might not like the idea because they think they are responsible. That’s great, but if they’re responsible enough to follow these standards anyway, then it couldn’t hurt to sign off on it. It should be stressed at all times that driving is a privelege for your teenager, not a right. If they don’t want to practice safe driving behaviour, especially to the point where you can’t afford to insure them, then there is always he bicycle.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
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