Deer Season may be something hunters look forward to, but its not a good thing for drivers.

Drivers need to keep their eyes open for deer during deer season.

In most parts of the country, we have either just finished or are in the midst of deer season for the hunters. Unfortunately, even for those of us that don’t hunt we too are in the midst of a deer season – deer hitting season. This time of the year, October through December, there are more deer related car accidents than any other time of the year.

What can you do about it? Very little.

What’s up with the Deer Season for Drivers?

October through December, is when the deer roam the furthest from their normal homes. It really has very little to do with hunting season, and more because it is the deer’s mating season. During mating season, deer wander so far because they are trying to find a mate.

For those of us that live in rural areas, we notice very little increase in the number of deer accidents and dead deer on the side of the road as compared to any other time of the year. That’s because we live in or very near the natural habitat of the deer.

During mating season, they start roaming into more urban areas with drivers that are not used to seeing them as often.

Don’t Swerve to Avoid Hitting a Deer?

During deer season, or any other time of the year, if a deer jumps directly out in front of you on the road there is very little you can do. Most likely, you will instinctively swerve to try and miss the deer, but that may cause you to hit another car or put yourself in an even more dangerous situation (like, going down an embankment).

Also, if you swerve in the same direction that the deer is running, you just increased your chances of still hitting that deer. If you swerve in the opposite direction, and the deer was with its herd, you may very well end up hitting another deer that you didn’t see at first.

Lastly, if you swerve and hit anything other than a deer, your accident just went from being able to be paid under your comprehensive coverage to having to be paid under your collision coverage. For most people, they have to pay more out of their pockets for their collision deductible than they do for their comprehensive deductible.

Instead of swerving, hit the brakes. You may still hit the deer, but you could also be preventing a worse accident. So by stopping you also stop the motion of at least one of the objects (your car), thereby decreasing your chance of hitting the other object (the deer), if the deer continues to keep going.

To be continued……

The 2012 Kia Forte is a boring, cheap car that is easy on the eyes and the insurance premium.

The 2012 KIA Forte is a nice sedan with good insurance premiums.

The 2012 Kia Forte is definitely not the type of vehicle that you are going to see drag racing along the street. It has a basic engine, high safety rankings, and is more of the type that young parents are going to be buying when they have their first baby.

This doesn’t mean in any way that the 2012 Forte isn’t a good buy, it just means that it is a safe bet that will have a nice low insurance premium to go with it.

IIHS Safety Ratings for the 2012 Kia Forte

The 2012 Kia Forte secured the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) designation as a “Top Safety Pick”, but only for the sedan models.

The Forte rated “good” for the front crash, side impact, and roof strength (rollover) tests. The good rating is the highest rating the IIHS gives to vehicles they test.

Receiving a good rating is nothing new for the Forte as it has always earned good ratings in all categories except one, since it was introduced in 2010. The only time it has ever earned a lower rating was when it was first introduced. The Kia Forte earned an “average” rating in the side impact test, but the company quickly made changes to the car and this rating is only for vehicles that were built June 2009 to November 2009.

Insurance Thoughts on the 2012 KIA Forte

This car is going to be nice and cheap to insure; which will go along nicely with the low car payment it has as well.

The 2012 Forte has 3 nice things in its favor as far as far as insurance ratings are concerned.

One, being a “Top Safety Pick” means that the vehicle is very safe for anyone inside the vehicle at the time of an accident. This translates in to lower premiums on the medical payments and/or PIP coverages.

Two, the Forte is an inexpensive vehicle, so an insurance company won’t be paying much to replace or fix it if it ever were to get into an accident. Because the insurance company won’t be paying much, you won’t be paying much for the comprehensive and collision coverage.

Finally, the liability coverage premium is going to be one of the lowest available. The vehicle is not associated with reckless racing and it’s a sedan that won’t do much damage. In other words, the 2012 KIA Forte is not the type of vehicle that insurance companies have to worry about causing many or expensive accidents.

The consequences of making multiple claims in a short period of time depend on the type of claims.

Anytime you file a claim with your insurance company, what happens to your insurance rates heavily depends on the type of claims you are filing. If you are filing multiple claims because your windshield keeps getting cracked or broke, you won’t see much, if anything, in the way of an increased premium.

However, if you have had 2 at-fault accidents within a 6 month period, be prepared for premium increases that are going to take your breath away.

As far as the question about the claims being on 2 different policies, again it depends on the claim. All claims are reported to your C.L.U.E. report and all insurance companies pull your C.L.U.E. report when you apply for insurance coverage with them. Not-at-fault accidents and windshield claims that are paid out by one insurance company are usually not recognized by other insurance companies when they determine your premium. An at-fault accident claim though, will be taken into account with any insurance company, regardless if they were with different companies.

State Farm introduces a questionable, driver feedback app with a cute commercial.

Commercial

Commercial starts with teen walking out of the house to his car with cellphone in hand. At the car, his dad has attached a number of homemade contraptions to track the teens driving behavior.

Teen: Dad, whatcha doing?

Dad: Come here. Ya gotta see this. (Pointing to a satellite dish) This will tell me where you are and how fast you’re going. And this, when the ball hits the sensor tells me how fast you turned. Oh! And you remember the old video camera.

Teen: Dad. You know that this (pointing to cellphone) can do all of that (pointing to inventions), right?

Commercial goes to a computer graphic of the different screens for the app.

Announcer: The driver feedback app, start it, stop it, see how you did, see where you went. Get tips for driving, and even better – it’s free. Download the driver feedback app now!

Commercial goes back to dad in front of the car.

Dad: But can it do this?

Dad locks the car and it plays a tune. Teen folds hands behind his head in exasperation.

Point of Commercial

State Farm is introducing a new app for teen drivers. While they are targeting parents of teen drivers, it feels like an extension of the campaign aimed at trying to appeal to the younger generation of drivers, also (see Buffalo Jingle commercial).

What They Want You to Do

They aren’t asking for your business, they just want you to use their app. Read the fine print before you download it though.

My Opinion

Don’t get me wrong, I really like this commercial. It’s funny, it’s memorable, and the commercial hits its target of parents of driving, or soon to be driving, teens perfectly. What I don’t like is the app itself.

As a parent of a teen, there is a problem and the impending excuse that comes to mind immediately. The problem is that the teen is responsible for turning on the app via their cellphone for you to be able to track them. How many teens out there want their parents tracking their driving, let alone voluntarily subjecting themselves to it?

As I asked myself this question and tried to find the solution of making them turn it on, the excuse of “ I forgot” immediately came to mind for each time you ask as to why they didn’t turn it on. Sorry, but thinking that this app isn’t going to be as helpful as the tracking devices that are attached to the car like the ones from GEICO and SAFECO.

But since we are here to talk about the commercial and not the app, let me return to our beaten path with a rating. The funny, on target, State Farm driver feedback app commercial, gets two thumbs up from me.

New Jersey gives you the choice of fines and surcharge or fines and insurance increases.

Would you pay the smaller surcharge to keep violation points from increasing your insurance premium?

If you had the option to add a surcharge on your traffic violation to keep it off your driving record, would you? You can in states like New Jersey, where they give you the option of paying a surcharge on top of your initial traffic violation fine. This surcharge keeps the points from the traffic violation off of your driving record; making you look like a better driver than you really are to your insurance company.

How This New Jersey Surcharge Works

New Jersey allows you to pay a $250 surcharge on top of the fine amount you are charged for two traffic violations in a 5-year period. The surcharge keeps the points from being added to your driving record, kind of like a paid forgiveness program. Nothing in life is free anymore, is it?

If you are silly enough to get 3 or more violations in a 5-year period, New Jersey fines you and starts adding up the points. Because you used up all their forgiveness the first two times, the third violation and anymore after that will add 4 points apiece to your record.

How Would the Surcharge Affect You?

The surcharge that is paid through this program is to keep the points off your driving record; which is what insurance companies use as one of the factors to set your insurance premium. Actually, the driving record is one of the biggest factors that the insurance companies use for your insurance premiums.

Because you have a higher chance of getting into a car accident with your driving behavior, the more points on your driving record, the higher your insurance premium. In some states they eventually revoke your license after so many points, and in other states they do not.

As an example of how your points affect your driving record; when I worked in the assigned risk department for an insurance company, the most points I ever saw on a driving record was 25 points. This person no longer qualified for regular insurance coverage because of how dangerous of a driver they were. So the company was forced, by the government, to give this person insurance, and they made sure that the driver was paying enough to cover any accident they were most likely to get in.

In fact, the premium was so high that it was everything I could do not to point blank ask this person why they didn’t just take the bus. We aren’t talking a couple thousand dollars here, were talking enough to pay for a different, nice, used car every 12 months ($10,000 – $13,000).

If you only had one or two violations, would you pay a surcharge to keep them off your record, so your insurance premium would stay down?