According to Diamond Insurance, the women only car insurance company, teaching assistants from Perth in Scotland are the safest drivers in the country.
The insurer looked at their own information as well as more general industry details to determine the safest occupations statistically, with these Scottish teaching assistants topping the table. Female accountants and secretaries also fared well in the survey, whilst for men the safest drivers were those with a policing background, computer programming and engineering. A spokesperson from Diamond Insurance noted that it was reassuring to know that the people tasked with protecting us are also safe drivers.
On the other side of the coin, the female drivers most likely to have an accident were hairdressers, with their chances of making a claim almost twenty percent higher than anyone else. Diamond Insurance welcome enquiries from any industry, confident that they will provide a very competitive quote.
The RAC is advising UK drivers to make sure they check their tyres regularly to avoid problems.
Having asked drivers about tyres it seems that a number of them are unaware of legal requirements regarding tread and also the general condition of the tyre. The RAC survey found 45 percent of drivers did not know that the minimum tread depth of a tyre is 1.6 mm. For female drivers this went up to 60 percent being unaware of the figure.
Tyres can be forgotten about quite easily but they are very important for road safety, general performance and also fuel economy. The RAC would like drivers to check their tyre condition and pressures at least weekly to avoid having a problem on the road.
In a somewhat surprising comment Yes Insurance have asked for fire engines to be yellow rather than the traditional red.
The request comes following the insurers research in to vehicle colours and how safe they are, research that supplements other studies already carried out. Yes Insurance found that lime yellow is one of the safest colours on the road thanks to its high visibility both at night and day plus in poor weather, when it cuts through poor visibility better than any other.
A further reason Yes Insurance asked for the red paint to be swapped on fire engines for yellow was that red can often be perceived as black when it is dark, plus red is quite hard to see from drivers peripheral vision. These two issues are quite serious for an emergency vehicle that is often out when it is dark and also tries to get through traffic from all angles.