Insurance: Dog days in motor insurance
We all know about the distraction mobile phones, cigarettes, children - and even some adults - can be in the car. But what people get up to with their dogs in the car almost defies belief. But, incredibly, it's what some women do with babies while they drive that really shocks.
A survey by the American Automobile Association (AAA) has show that more than half of drivers pet their dogs while driving.
Obviously, this includes a large range of activity, from ruffling its ears at traffic lights so it doesn't feel neglected and bound around (a good thing) to actively teasing it (a bad thing).We assume that's what the survey meant by "petting." Surely nothing too heavy?
Eating and drinking while driving is - somewhat inexplicably in some instances - an offence in the UK. Yet in the USA, 7% drivers will feed or water their dog.
Playing with the dog is rare - and may account for part of the "petting" figures as definitions may be blurred.
But the startling figure is that more than one in five US drivers surveyed said they let their dog sit in their lap whilst driving.
What next? Breast feeding while driving?
Mad as that might seem, in February 2009, a woman in Ohio, USA admitted driving whilst using her mobile phone - and while breadfeeding her baby. Evidence was presented to the Court that the woman rested the baby on the steering wheel of her Honda minivan while she ferried other children to school. Genine Compton, 39 was charged with, inter alia, endangering the children. Her defence was that she could not deprive the baby when it was hungry. She was sentenced to "unsupervised probation" and a small fine.
But her conduct was trumped just a few weeks later by an Australian woman, aged 19, who was found to be driving whilst breastfeeding - and drunk. Her unregistered and uninsured car was stopped by police after she almost ran into a patrol car, the Courier-Mail reported.
Here's a challenge: try writing an exclusion clause to cover this.
Pic credit: PRNewsFoto/AAA
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