15-01-2015

After analysing more than 1.3 million police crash reports, AXA Business Insurance has produced a report that shows the instances when you are most likely to crash your van.

The results are listed below in their various categories, but a few surprising results were:

• Van drivers are 142% more likely to crash whilst reversing
• Vans are over 40% more likely to be crashed into whilst driving

In commenting on this, Richard Owen, of Road Safety Analysis, said: “We have to remember that while HGV drivers get rigorous additional training for driving a specialist vehicle, almost anyone can get behind the wheel of a van. Common manoeuvres such as changing lanes, reversing and parking are considerably more demanding in a much larger vehicle. We’ve all been taught to reverse a car; but in a van, visibility is restricted and the dimensions are very different.”

Thankfully the study wasn’t all bad news. It also found van drivers to be safer drivers in situations that required quick and confident reactions such as:

• Heavy traffic
• Overtaking
• Manoeuvring roundabouts

In commenting on this, Darrell Sansom, managing director of AXA Business Insurance said:

“Our report shows that in many respects, they are also professional, confident drivers who come out better than everyone else on things like speed, drink-driving and handling heavy traffic.

“However, as a business insurer with a serious responsibility to help our customers reduce their risks, we have to raise the red flag on issues like tiredness and tailgating. We’re alerting the government authorities to our findings and discussing our recommendations for addressing these issues.”