by David Bates
New survey gives caravanners green light for safety
A new survey has revealed caravan and motorhome users believe themselves to be the safest of all road-users.
Caravan specialists, Shield Total Insurance, have conducted a survey of 400 UK caravan and motorhome users in response to a recent Brake survey which suggested that drivers tend to favour their own ability and dish out blame on others.
Caravanners also bore the brunt of another new survey, which labelled them the UK’s worst drivers.
Shield’s survey, however, finds the opposite, 83 per cent of those questioned described themselves as ‘safer’ or ‘much safer’ than other drivers, whilst the Brake report has this figure at 69 per cent amongst other users.
Meanwhile, confidence amongst caravanners is significantly greater than towards the general population. Only 52 per cent felt threatened by the driving of other caravanners, whereas 87 per cent felt imperiled by other drivers, of those, one in nine every time they take to the road.
The Shield Survey found a multitude of driving offences, amongst them tailgating, speeding, changing lanes without looking properly and running red lights, to be significantly lower, by around a third, in caravanners, than the Brake survey gaged in other motorists.
Further, caravanners are less likely to willfully break traffic laws, and the majority of the 48 per cent who admitted to breaching regulations, did so inadvertently.
With so much bad press directed towards caravan driving recently, is this a satisfying retort? Or unjustified self-confidence?
