The protection and benefits that the insurance policy offers is one of the first considerations when buying touring caravan insurance. A typical caravan insurance UK policy usually covers many perils, though you will need to check the policy schedule to see the particular features and benefits offered by your chosen policy as these can vary among caravan insurance providers. For instance, your policy may provide the following protection as standard or as an add-on: · damage to the property due to lightning or earthquake; · damage caused by flooding or storm; · damage caused due to accident; · damage from the result of vandalism or a malicious act; · theft of your caravan providing you have taken precautions asked by the provider. This may typically include the use of a hitchlock whilst the caravan is attached to the vehicle. In the case of it being unhitched then a hitchlock and wheel clamp may typically be required to be in use; · any damage to the caravan as the result of attempted theft. Your touring caravan insurance typically provides cover for the contents of your caravan if they are stolen from within the caravan. Tyypically the insurance policy provides protection for your awning and gas bottles, but you do need to check in the policy for limitations to this. For example, your awning may be covered for damage in storms when you are in your caravan. However you may not be eligible to make a claim in the event of damage due to a storm and you were away from the caravan at the time. Insurance providers may state a limit of insurance separately on your policy for your awning. Additional benefits There may also be additional benefits to taking a caravan insurance tourer policy. Emergency removal might generally be covered in your insurance policy in the event of you being in an accident and the caravan having to be recovered from the scene. The insurance provider may pay additional costs towards the recovery of your caravan, up to a amount that was pre-agreed of course. This part of the insurance might typically include re-delivering your caravan to your home. If your caravan is destroyed or damaged and you are unable to continue your holiday in it but decide not to go home the insurance provider may pay so much towards alternative accommodation. This is typically up to so much per day for hotel accommodation or towards renting out another caravan, for so many days. Liability insurance may also be included in your touring caravan insurance. Liability insurance typically pays so much towards your legal costs if a third party takes you to court for injury, loss or damage caused to them while you are using your touring caravan, within the defined geographical limits of your policy. Touring caravan insurance policy benefits differ between providers and possibly the level of cover chosen you may wish to check the small print before taking out insurance.

A new study in Virginia suggests that early school starts may be having an effect on the number of automobile accidents involving teens.  Car crashes are the number one killer of teens in the United States; any new insights into this dreadful scourge could save thousands of teen lives each year.

The study in question compared the 2008 crash rates of high school students in two adjacent Virginia towns.  The author of the study was Dr. Robert Vorona, an associate professor of internal medicine in the Division of Sleep Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, VA.

Dr. Vorona relied on the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles for data on the accident rates among drivers aged 16 to 18 in the two towns.  The two Virginia towns, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, have similar demographics but start high school an hour and twenty minutes apart, 7:20 am and 8:40 am respectively.  The study found that Virginia Beach, with its 7:20 am start time, had 65.4 crashes per 1,000 teen drivers compared to Chesapeake’s, with its 8:40 am start time, 46.2 crashes per 1,000 teens.  These figures equate out to a 41% difference in teen driver crashes.

While Dr. Vorona will not explicitly make the link between early high school start times and teenage car crashes, having been quoted as saying, “This study did not prove by any means that early high school start times led to increased rates of car crashes. Instead, it shows an association between early risers and car crashes.”  

Dr. Vorona does however believe that when combined with other research, he suggests pushing for later start times, and goes onto to say that, “Early high school start times are problematic.”  Speaking on these later start times, Dr. Vorona goes on to say, “Teenagers need over nine hours sleep a night, and it looks like a large number of teens don’t get sufficient sleep…part of that relates to the time that high schools begin.”

Studies done on teen behavior agree with Dr. Vorona.   “There are data that demonstrate that lack of sleep has negative consequences for teens,” he said. “And some data show that younger drivers are more likely to have crashes when they have inadequate sleep.”

A leading Kansas City auto accident attorney and Dr. Barbara Phillips, of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, both agree with Dr. Vorona’s claims.  Dr. Phillips believes that teens are “biologically programmed” to become sleepy and wake up later than adults. “They truly can’t help it. They’re just not going to get sleepy at 10 p.m., so it’s hard for them to get the eight to 10 hours of sleep they need to get when they have to catch the 7:30 bus,” she says.

When you combine the lack of sleep with the act of driving, things turn unsafe. “Younger, inexperienced drivers don’t fare well with additional handicaps such as impaired alertness caused by having to get up earlier than is natural for them,” said Dr. Phillips.  A leading Kansas City car crash attorney has witnessed first hand the dangerous combination that sleep-deprivation and driving can be.

Much like Dr. Vorona in Virginia, Dr. Phillips co-authored a study comparing car crash rates and the sleep of teen drivers.  Hers in 1998 compared the crash rates for teens in Lexington, Kentucky after the school district instituted a later school start with the previous two years before the change in start time.  The results of the study were conclusive; crash rates declined 16.5% in a period where teenage crash rates actually increased in the state of Kentucky by 7.8%.

Perhaps more states should listen to the research of Dr. Vorona and Dr. Phillips as well as the observations of Kansas City car crash attorneys and Kansas City auto accident attorneys everywhere and move high school start times back.  The argument against doing so is that early start times allow for after school sports; there has to be a compromise because the world cannot afford to lose one more teenager to a car crash before their time.