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Menace To Society


The DriveWrite Archives

Menace To Society

Geoff Maxted
DriveWrite
October 6, 2013


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The people who are the most likely to be caught speeding have been revealed by a recent survey based on insurance quotes and the effect on them of penalty points. It is not, as you thought, some miscreant youth with his baseball cap on back to front; it is in fact your average professional business man. The young folk of Britain can now formally reject any slur on their driving character.

Furthermore, the student body can laugh in the face of accusations, knowing that the culprit is more likely to come from those professions to which they aspire - and that means, generally, high earners.

It seems obvious really: the better paid are more able to buy expensive and powerful new cars and, as a consequence, are more likely to speed. Young people simply can’t afford the sort of wheels that are driven by managing directors, consultants - medical or otherwise - and the legal profession.

At the other end of the scale, lower paid workers and impoverished students can only afford the budget end of the used car market. In fact this study shows that young people are the least likely to get convictions for speeding. That territory is reserved for men in the forty to fifty age bracket. In insurance terms, your profession says more about you and the sort of motor you’d choose - which in turn gives a clue to gender as well.

It seems that almost ten percent of men have speeding convictions. Typically women score about three percent less. In the age bracket of 20-24 the balance is about the same but there are generally less convictions overall.

Surprisingly, top medical professionals feature rather badly with surgeons and hospital consultants notching up the points. Anyone who is in charge of something - Chief Executives, Managing Directors - are guilty as charged and that includes the barristers who represent you on your day in court.

So it appears that our cars make us what we are. Exonerate yourself by saying (whilst openly clutching a couple of twenty pound notes), ‘Sorry officer, it wasn’t me, I’m not like that. It was the car that made me do it’. This could work. Try it yourself next time (and there will be a next time) you get stopped for a speed violation. Don’t reveal who gave you the idea though - nobody likes a grass. Know what I mean?

It almost feels like a plot doesn’t it? A ruse to make us toe the line and buy small cars with engines the size of lawn mower motors. Yet the fact remains that on our increasingly crowded and regulated roads these are the cars we’ll all soon be driving. Well, we wanted a society not based on class, wealth and position. Drivers will take the lead.




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