American’s choosing to drive their cars less
Prices for oil have been surging across the world as demand exceeds supply. Many countries that are unable to drill sufficient oil themselves have to rely on world market rates in order to fill the pumps. As a consequence many Western countries have now seen sharp increases in the price of fuel, which does not seem to be slowing down.
Research from America has shown that the cost of fuel has had one positive effect. Motorists are becoming less and less willing to drive their cars due to the high running costs, and therefore there has been a decrease in the number of road traffic accidents.
Whilst this mean seem like good news for the car insurers, the costs of those car accident claims which do occur has actually risen as a result of increasing inflation. So while there have been less accidents, there has been an increase in cost for each accident claim.
Updated on 01/07/2008