Memorial Day weekend is one that people look forward to. Many people are going to be able to enjoy having an extra day off of work this week. There will be parties this weekend, and many will serve alcohol. Make sure you are driving safely this weekend, so you won’t end up needing to spend time trying to file an insurance claim on days when your insurance office is likely to be closed.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Memorial Day weekend is a dangerous time to be on the road. Data from 2009 shows that this particular holiday weekend had the highest volume of crash related deaths. People will be attending parades, visiting cemeteries for the purpose of decorating the graves of family members who were in the military, and attending backyard parties. This means that there are going to be a whole lot of extra vehicles driving down the roads and highways this weekend.
So, unless you will be celebrating Memorial Day at home this weekend, (which is a perfectly acceptable choice), you are going to have to be extra careful while you are driving. Nobody is going to want to spend part of their three day weekend frantically trying to get a hold of someone at their insurance office, so they can file a claim. You cannot control what all the other drivers will be doing, but, there still are some things that you can do to avoid getting into an accident, and having to share your car insurance information with another driver.
Don’t drink and drive. Drivers who are intoxicated have a high risk of making the kind of errors in judgement that lead to car accidents. Select a designated driver before you arrive at the party you will be attending this weekend. Keep in mind that Memorial Day weekend is going to mean that there will be extra police on the roads, looking for drivers that may have had too much to drink.
Turn off your cell phone. There are a lot of car accidents that are caused by drivers that were distracted because they were texting, talking on their phone, or even surfing the internet while driving. This is not the weekend to try any of those potentially dangerous behaviors. You are going to need to be completely focused on the traffic around you, so you can avoid an accident from a distracted or drunk driver who is driving unsafely.
Does your car insurance cover towing? AAA estimates that it expects to be needed by 3.7 million motorists who require towing assistance between Memorial Day and Labor Day. It can be expensive to pay for the service of a towing company. You can avoid that cost if your car insurance covers towing. If you got into a car accident, you have to contact your insurance agent anyway, so that would be a good time to let him or her know that you need a tow.
Image by ganesha.isis on Flickr