Not many brokers have the luxury of sitting down with their teenage clients who are about to take the wheel for the first time. But what would you say if you could? One northern Ontario broker makes a point of doing it – and here’s what he has to say.
“I do search and rescue with the air force, and I see what can happen when you have kids age 12, 13 or 14 hopping onto ATVs and Quad (runners) and driving 140 miles per hour,” says Rod LaRocque, of Local Insurance Brokers in Sudbury, Ont. “They simply don’t have the expertise to operate these vehicles. It is the same with teenage drivers just starting out.”
At his brokerage, staff make a point of having a one-on-one with new teenage drivers and their parents for ‘the talk’ about insurance and careful driving.
“We set the kid down and spell it out with the parents,” says LaRocque. “Historically we’ve done it, and we find it helps in certain cases.”
For LaRocque, who has been a broker for more than 30 years, he sees youth, inexperience and winter driving conditions leading to accidents and claims that could be easily avoided.
“Look at snow tires, for starters,” he told Insurance Business. “In Quebec they are mandatory. Or the technology that is out there to help avoid collisions – traction control, proximity alerts, automatic braking – all these should be incorporated into vehicles to slow drivers down. All of that technology is there, and it would reduce the number of accident claims, and reduce the medical costs.” (continued.)
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LaRocque, who calls on the auto industry and different levels of government to take action on this problem (see
Winter Driving, in the Opinion section), points out that the public is willing to incorporate these technologies if it means safer driving.
“Something like telematics, for instance,” he says. “It adds value, and people are going to buy into it.”
