Auto and Home Insurance Agency In SC Received Better Business Bureau Gold Star Award

I thought I would take a few seconds and toot our own horn.  As an independent auto,home, and business insurance agency in South Carolina doing the right thing for our clients is the only way we can survive and flourish.  I know this is not a huge deal, but the fact that our agency was awarded the BBB Gold Star Award goes a long way in showing how blessed we are to have such wonderful people working in our agency.

The report is below if you want to take a look at who else made the cut.  Thanks for you time and let us know if you ever have any questions about your personal auto or home insurance.  Have a wonderful day!

Palmetto Insurance Awarded BBB Gold Star


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Will Welborn
Palmetto Insurance
864.561.9100

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Teen drivers are expensive, risky, and inexperienced - we can help - for our exclusive Teen Driver Safety Program go to www.scteendriverinsurance.com
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Survey Shows Teens Reporting Less Than Eight Hours of Sleep Are Twice as Likely to Fall Asleep at the Wheel

by NAMIC - Nov 12,2008

Teens who get less than eight hours of sleep per night on average are twice as likely to say they have fallen asleep at the wheel (20 percent) than are teens who report getting an average of eight or more hours of sleep per night (10 percent), according to a new Liberty Mutual Insurance and Students Against Destructive Decisions survey. The national survey of 3,580 students in grades 10, 11, and 12 also found that 36 percent of teens often drive to school in the morning when drowsy. "The new survey reminds teens and parents that road safety begins with a good night's sleep," said Dave Melton, director of Transportation Technical Consulting Services at the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety in Hopkinton, Mass. Melton said the survey findings are significant, given that 82 percent of teen drivers report that their main reason for driving is to get to school. "As parents we tend to equate safe teen driving with sober driving, but fatigue should be an equal cause for concern," said Melton. "Together we need to raise awareness of the risk factors and symptoms of drowsy driving in our communities and schools to ensure our children are getting the rest they need and provide them with the tools to know what to do if they are on the road and tired." The survey also provided a broad view of teen driving habits and the factors that are likely to affect whether a teen driver falls asleep at the wheel. For example: Teen boys (29 percent) are more likely than teen girls (24 percent) to say they feel safe driving alone when they are tired; yet teen boys (20 percent) are more likely than teen girls (11 percent) to fall asleep at the wheel. Teens who have had a license for less than a year are more likely to fall asleep in the morning (31 percent); the reverse is true for more experienced teen drivers, as 55 percent of teens who have been licensed for more than a year say they are most likely to fall asleep at the wheel late at night. Myths and facts about drowsy driving Drowsy driving causes more than 10,000 crashes each year, leading to 40,000 injuries and 1,550 deaths, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Yet, of additional concern, the Liberty Mutual/SADD survey found an overwhelming number of teen drivers often rely on other mostly ineffective activities - some even distracting or dangerous - to help combat symptoms of drowsiness, including: Playing loud music (49 percent) Talking with passengers (45 percent) Rolling down the window (27 percent) Talking on their cell phone (22 percent) Drinking energy drinks (19 percent) Drinking coffee (14 percent) Speeding (11 percent) Text messaging (11 percent) Of all of these choices, the National Sleep Foundation considers only caffeine - such as coffee or energy drinks - as a possible countermeasure to avoid falling asleep at the wheel. However, while the equivalent of two cups of coffee can increase alertness for several hours, it should not be relied on to overcome sleep deprivation. "We know these methods are not reliable for teens or adults," adds Melton. "Sleep loss or fatigue impairs driving skills such as hand-eye coordination, reaction time, vision, awareness of surroundings, and judgment." Indeed, the National Sleep Foundation says drowsy driving can be just as dangerous as impaired driving. Unlike an impaired driver, a person who falls asleep while driving has no control of the vehicle and cannot take any measures to avoid a crash. The combination of sleepiness, inexperience, and lifestyle choices including tendencies to drive at night and in the early morning hours puts young adults at risk for drowsy-driving crashes. Prevention is key Sufficient sleep is the best antidote to drowsy driving. The National Sleep Foundation recommends that teens should be getting between 8.5 and 9.5 hours of sleep to be fully rested, but because of classes, after school activities, and social lives most teens are getting much less. The Liberty Mutual/SADD study found that teens get an average of 7.4 hours of sleep per night, the least amount (7.2 hours on average) coming on school nights (Sunday throughThursday). "Unfortunately, 'early to bed, early to rise' doesn't sync well with suddenly nocturnal teens who are balancing late nights, early mornings, and jam-packed schedules," said Stephen Wallace, SADD chairman/CEO. "They want to do it all, but our job is to help them regulate competing demands in a way that ensures they get the sleep they need to be safe behind the wheel." The National Sleep Foundation also supports these tips to help combat drowsy driving: Allow time for breaks on long trips - about every 100 miles or two hours Use the buddy system - ask your passenger to stay awake during the drive to help keep you awake and to share the driving responsibilities. If sleepiness sets in while driving, prevent a crash by pulling over to find a safe place to take a nap or sleep for the night. Source: Liberty Mutual/SADD --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © Copyright 2007, National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC).

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New technology and government recommendations - yee ha!

Image via WikipediaI came across an interesting article a few days ago. It is about Ford developing a "smart" key that parents can program so when a young driver is operating the vehicle certain limitations are programmed into the car. Click HERE to read the full article.

I don't know if this is the best way to deal with the issue, since safety GPS systems exist now that can track much more information (see the link on the right) without actually changing the operational ability of the vehicle.

There has also been a lot of talk about a recent study and recommendation for raising the age at which a teen driver can obtain a license (and adding more steps in the graduated drives license process).

I'm still thinking about this - I may be old - but I still remember getting my license and how big of a deal that was. I'm leaning towards the theory that it is the lack of experience, not some specific number of years you have been alive, that creates the risk.

Think about it. If a kid gets his license at 16, 17, or 18 you still have an inexperienced teenager behind the wheel of a car. Would raising the age one year really help - I'm not convinced, and I'm an insurance agent :)

Have a great day!

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Teen Driver Safety Course Released

We have just put the finishing touches on our Safe Teen Driver Guide. This is a 16 week home study course for teens just beginning to drive. It is recommended that a new teen driver receive a minimum of 100 hours of supervised training before hitting the road alone.

Unfortunately, most driving courses at school simply can't provide this amount of behind the wheel time. And if you are like me, you don't have 100 hours of driver training just rolling around in your head.

So we thought it would be a great idea to have a team of experts compile a comprehensive program for you to use with your teen driver. For a limited time we are making this available for FREE regardless of who your insurance company is.

While we would love to be your agent, it is more important that your teen driver receive the proper amount of training before they go it alone. To request your free copy, simply click HERE to email me. Put "teen driver guide" in the subject line, and I'll get your copy right out to you.

Thanks!
Will

Inexperience Can Lead to Tragedy

Recently, I had the privilege to host an interview with a man who has a very riveting story to share. Although his story was one that we all hope to never experience, he has turned a tragic event into a mission to help others prevent the same happening to them.

You see, Chris Fore, as an adolescent was just beginning to move into a new chapter in his life. He was the typical American high school student who had the world ahead of him… an athlete with a promising future…  raised with good moral values and very active in his church. He had the world in front of him and it looked brighter than ever.

Then one night everything changed.

Chris was just 16 when he experienced an event so terrible, that it would forever change the course of his future. But worse, it would ultimately end the future of his good friend.

One night after bible study, Chris and his friends decided to drive over to another friend’s house to finish the evening playing basketball.  Chris’s friend, who was driving, had just gotten his driver’s license earlier that day, and as they were driving through rural neighborhoods with many somewhat blind driveways, he caved in to peer pressure and pushed his vehicle beyond a safe speed.

His inexperience as a driver led to an accident that ended his life and left a memory with those that survived the crash that would last for as long as they lived.

Chris survived the car crash to share the story to hopefully, make teens realize how dangerous driving really is. Chris spent the next several months in a wheel chair and his aspirations of becoming a star athlete diminished.

Today, Chris is a high school football coach where every day he preaches his message of teen driver safety. He speaks on this subject every opportunity he gets and has turned this tragedy into a lifelong mission of preventing the same happening to those he influences.

Again, I had the privilege to speak with Chris and I would like to help him share his story with you… in his own words.  If you would like a free copy of my interview with Chris, please send me an e-mail at will@palmettoinsurance.com or call me at 864-561-9100.

Thanks,

Will Welborn

PS Peer pressure, inexperience, and speeding are the leading causes of teenage deaths in our country. There are steps that you can take to possibly prevent or at least, reduce the likelihood of this happening to your family. I would like to help you. Please let me know if I can. 

What kind of example am I setting?

Image via Wikipedia We've all seen those drivers swerving like there were bumper pads along the side of the road. When we finally get the nerve to pass them, one of the most commons sights today is a young driver frantically texting someone on their cell phone.

I'll mutter under my breath (or sometimes quite above my breath), "what in the world are they doing. Do they have a death wish?" Then in happened...

The other day I was headed home from my son's soccer practice. Everyone in the car was sweaty and hungry. As I'm driving my phone buzzes. It's my wife emailing to say we're going out for pizza, meet her at the restaurant. I just click reply and... it hit me.

I was carrying my two sons and another player and I was about to do what I tell parents to discourage their teen drivers from doing - send a text message while driving. This led to this post today.

It is easy to tell your teen driver what to do and what not to do. But am I, as a parent, teaching by example or just being a blow hard. People, and ESPECIALLY teenagers, are very aware when someone is talking one way and behaving another.

If you have a teen driver and want them to be safe, responsible, and considerate then don't tell them - show them. I know I will need to work on that, but its worth it.

Will

It all comes down to experience and attitude

Image via Wikipedia
The safety of your teen driver has many factors - many of which you can't control. Things like other drivers, a mechanical malfunction (although these are often preventable too), animals all can lead to your teen driver having an accident or getting hurt. But almost every piece of research available comes to the same conclusions concerning what teens themselves lack:

1) Experience
2) The right attitude

Did you know it is recommended that a new driver get a minimum of 100 supervised hours of training before driving alone? and about 20% of this should occur at night, where conditions are much more conducive accidents.

It is also a good idea to have your teen driver take a driving attitude assessment. This tool allows you to get a grasp of where your teen might be opening himself up for trouble - are they susceptible to road rage, peer pressure, or just plain nervous?

We have two free tools for you to use in these areas. If you would like a FREE copy of our 16 week home study driver course for teens, just click HERE. We also provide a free GPS system and free installation of the system for our clients with teen drivers. With this system you get an online driver assessment report for your teen.

If you have any questions, my office would love to help. Just give us a call at 849-0390.

Thanks!





Other useful articles I found while doing some research:

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So what does this teen driver GPS do anyway? Check it out below:

One of our agency partners just had these installed on his 4 teen driver's cars (Yes that is four teen drivers - now you know why he is so happy with this program). I've posted some screen shots below so you can really see how this could help protect your teen driver.
Click the image for a larger, easier to read image.

Here is what it looks like as you set up your parameters:

And here is a sample of what you will see if you need to locate the vehicle:
If you would like more information about how you can get this system delivered and installed for FREE, just visit my website, www.scteendriverinsurance.com. You can listen to a customers testimonial at the top right corner is this site. I think you will definitely see how this can make your teen a safer, more responsible driver.

Till next time,




Will

Hi,

I just received some exciting news from one of our insurance companies. This company has been on the leading edge of teen driver safety and working to reduce the number of accidents involving teen drivers.

Last summer, they launched a new system called Teensurance to help their customers keep their kids safe. This is a GPS based system that is installed in the teen's car and alerts parents of dangerous behaviors such as speeding, driving beyond an allowed territory and breaking curfew.

Well, they just announced that they are now offering this system to any parent that wants to get this system installed in their kid's vehicle. They will pay for the installation and the unit if the parent agrees to a 2 year contract. Similar systems can cost as much as $800.

Here is the very cool part. You don't even have to purchase your insurance through this company. They are making this offer to any parent of a teen driver.

The monthly monitoring fee is only $14.99 per month which gives the parent website access to create and adjust the parameters for the alerts, view the location of the vehicle and it will even allow you to unlock the car doors in case your teen gets locked out.

Along with the GPS system comes roadside assistance and other teen driver safety tools.
If you would like more information, visit my website www.scteendriverinsurance.com or call my office at 864-849-0390

Will

PS Some of our companies are offering special discounts for parents who have this system installed on their teen's car. And as you know, any discount you can get on a teen driver's insurance premium is a good thing.

The Social Lives of Most Teenagers Tend to Revolve Around Their Cell Phones -- Even When They Are Behind the Wheel…..So What Does This Mean?

"People don't want to be inaccessible for even 15 minutes driving up the street," said Harrison, 19, a sophomore at Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va. "They're so used to being accessible all the time."

Targeting inexperienced motorists, several states have passed laws during the past five years restricting cell phone use by teenage drivers.

But a recently released insurance industry study looked at whether teens are ignoring such restrictions contends enforcement and parental influence are just as important as new laws. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety studied specific state laws which fine motorists under age 18 who are caught using a cell phone.

Researchers who watched as high school students left school found that teenage drivers used their cell phones at about the same rate both before and after the laws took effect. In South Carolina, which does not have a similar restriction, cell phone use by teenage drivers was about the same for both periods studied.

A separate phone survey of parents and teenagers showed widespread support for their state's law, but more than three in five reported that enforcement was rare or nonexistent.
"Cell phone bans for teen drivers are difficult to enforce," said Anne McCartt, the institute's senior vice president for research and an author of the study. "Drivers with phones to their ears aren't hard to spot, but it's nearly impossible for police officers to see hands free devices or correctly guess how old drivers are."

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers, according to the government's auto safety agency, and teenagers are involved in three times as many fatal crashes as all other drivers.

The institute says 17 states and the District of Columbia have cell phone restrictions in licensing requirements for teen drivers. The National Transportation Safety Board in 2003 recommended that states limit or bar young drivers from using cell phones, leading many states to act.
Harrison, who serves with Students Against Destructive Decisions, an advocacy group focused on highway safety issues, said few of her friends know about laws banning cell phone use by novice drivers.

Bill Bronrott, a Maryland state delegate who sponsored a successful bill in 2005 prohibiting rookie drivers under 18 from using cell phones, except to make 911 emergency calls, said a "combination of education and enforcement" was critical. So, too, parental involvement.
Added Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association: "What these kinds of laws do is send the message to the parent more than anything else."
In the North Carolina study, researchers found that 11 percent of teenage drivers observed departing 25 high schools during the two months before the ban took effect were using cell phones. About five months after the ban took effect, during the spring of 2007, nearly 12 percent were observed using phones.

In South Carolina, observers found that 13 percent of high school students departing 18 high schools used cell phones while driving. The rates were consistent during the same two time periods studied in North Carolina.

In the North Carolina phone survey, 95 percent of parents and 74 percent of teenagers supported the restriction. But 71 percent of teens and 60 percent of parents felt that enforcement was rare or nonexistent.

In North Carolina, 37 citations were issued in 2007 by the state highway patrol to teens using a cell phone while operating a vehicle. Twenty-eight citations have been issued in 2008.
Selena Childs, executive director of the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force, said in an e-mail that with many child safety laws in the state, "knowing that it's against the law is enough for many people to choose to comply with a law."

Childs said the state's driver's license system for young drivers has been effective "not so much because of law enforcement/citations, but because parents and teens self-enforce the law, resulting in reduced crashes."

Matt Sundeen, a transportation analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures, said many state laws on cell phones are new, making it difficult to assess their impact. He said more states are considering similar restrictions.

The institute conducted two separate telephone surveys: the first, before the cell phone restriction took effect, was in November 2006 and involved 400 pairs of parents and teenagers; the second, after the law had taken effect, was in April 2007 and involved a different sample of 401 pairs of parents and teenagers. Each survey had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Please share your thoughts here to help keep our young drivers safe and alive!

Top 5 Mistakes Teen Drivers Make

God bless the little darlings. They were born innocent and still are in many ways. They simply don't know any better when they are given their freedom(drivers license) which comes with some training, but like anything else, most of the real training comes on the job. Here are the 5 most challenging mistakes inexperienced drivers make:

1. Speeding. The faster a vehicle is traveling the longer it will take to bring the vehicle to a stop. Most teens understand this concept, however, the distance needed to stop increases exponentially as speed increases.

2. Distractions. Their biggest problem is they do not pay attention to their driving! Teens are constantly changing radio stations and C.D.’s. An increasingly popular and time consuming activity is talking on their cell phone or text messaging from their cell phone. Safety Tip; Don’t call your teen when you know that they are driving. It is amazing how often parents do this!

3. Overcorrecting. Many teen will take turns at too high of speeds, will then overcorrect and lose control of their vehicle.

4. Following too Close. This is the one thing that could prevent the largest number of accidents! If teens would just increase their following distance, then many times they could avoid an accident because they will have time to take evasive action. The correct following distance is two car lengths for every 10 miles per hour.

5. Failure to Yield. Many teens simply do not understand which vehicle has the right of way.

Please take some time and look at all of the tools our teen driver safety site has to offer at www.teendriverinsurance.com. Summer is a really good time to spend a few minutes or hours here.

If we can answer any quetions, please call our office at 864-849-0390.

May safe and slower travels be in your drivers seat.