A lot of new and old drivers want to know if they are considered dangerous or safe drivers. Some drivers might be shocked to see how high their insurance rates are, which can often be based on their gender and age more than any accident history.

So what makes some drivers more dangerous than others, and how do you know if you are one the most dangerous types?

Assessing Dangerous Types by Category

Before we get into the individual choices people make that may or may not increase their risk of causing a car accident, it’s worth examining who is getting into most crashes and why insurance companies charge some drivers a much higher monthly rate than others.

Clean driving records are not the biggest predictor of what your car insurance rate will be. Gender and age, even marital status, are high up on the list as well.

Car insurance rates are one of the few areas in American society where gender and age discrimination is perfectly acceptable. A 30-year-old man will pay far less each month than the same man ten years earlier.

Women pay less than men. Married men pay less than single men. Sound unfair? It may be, but these discriminatory-sounding policies are entirely derived from real accident statistics. In fact, we can simply look at insurance rates to determine which groups are the likeliest to get into accidents

So, who are the deadliest drivers that these insurance companies will want to charge the most out of an abundance of caution?

Teens: The Highway’s Deadliest Hazard

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), teen drivers are, predictably, the most dangerous type of driver on the road by age group. In national surveys, four in ten teens routinely admit to texting while driving, which is a huge cause of deadly crashes.

Teens are also less likely than other age groups to wear seatbelts. Teen drivers also tend to follow too closely compared to older drivers and may engage in more reckless behaviors. Significantly, because teen drivers are newer to the road, they are less likely to recognize when an impending situation is dangerous. This includes the need to slow down during bad weather conditions or for upcoming construction.

That said, there are a whole host of other behavioral and lifestyle factors not necessarily limited to teens that can significantly increase driving risk.

Deadly Behaviors

The worst habits that can be directly linked to fatal car crashes are:

• Drinking and driving;
• Texting while driving;
• Drug use prior to or while driving;
• Taking certain prescription medications before driving, particularly heavy pain medication or any barbiturates. Remember, just because the doctor prescribed it doesn’t mean it’s ok to drive with it. Read the labels carefully!;
• Emotional distraction on the road;
• Lack of sleep.

When it comes to distracted driving, oftentimes the victims in such accidents are pedestrians, bicyclists, or motorcyclists, rather than other drivers. This is because distracted drivers are less likely to notice smaller objects on the road and less likely to be using their peripheral vision.

Bringing a Legal Claim

Wondering how much is my bicycle accident case worth? The best move going forward is to get in touch with an attorney and assess your options.

Your attorney can negotiate directly with the relevant insurance companies on your behalf, which will often lead to a better settlement than you could get on your own. Furthermore, if the settlement offer is really not all that great, you will want a lawyer at your side if and when you opt to file suit.

When you do file suit, nine out of ten times you are going to end up settling out of court. This settlement will undoubtedly be better than what the insurance company offered initially after the accident.

Settlements that come in the midst of a lawsuit are also an attractive option because if your case makes it all the way to a jury and you lose, you walk away with nothing (except for legal fees that you owe).

But if you do win, judge or jury-awarded payments are often quite significant, and will ultimately prove with your time and well worth the relatively meager attorney fees that got you to that result.