Male aquarii make most vehicle insurance claims

[Euromutt]

If the Torygraph's representation of a survey conducted by Auto Trader is to be believed (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/3760635/Male-aquarians-are-drivers-most-likely-to-make-insurance-claims.html), the most accident-prone driver on the road is a male aquarius born in 1981. Isn't that spooky, possums?

Anyone care to play fallacy bingo?

[CFLarsen]

Looking at claims by date of birth, Auto Trader magazine found drivers born in 1981 made the most claims.

Other "unlucky" years included 1967, 1974, 1975 and 1978.

This immediately shoots down any claims of a Western astrological connection, since it would have evened out by year.

Even if we go with the Chinese zodiac, we see that the "unlucky" years span these "types":

1981: Rooster
1978: Horse
1975: Rabbit
1974: Tiger
1967: Ram

All of them different. No astrological connection here either.

Overall those aged 36-40 made the most claims followed by those aged 31-35.

Yet, we also know that 18-25 year old men are by far the most accident prone. Some insurance companies here won't even accept 18-year olds who just had a new bike, because the companies know they are a ridiculous hazard.

With age comes a feeling of responsibility: You will own up to your actions. Not surprising.

And, of course: There is a difference between having an accident and making a claim.

Drivers born under the star sign Aquarius were most likely to have an accident, followed by Pisceans;

Scorpios and Sagittarians were least likely to make claim

We don't know the exact numbers or distribution, so difficult to tell.

However, in other reports:

The number one worst drivers were Geminis, "typically described as restless, easily bored and frustrated by things moving slowly," explained Warren Duke, Suncorp's national manager of personal insurance. "They had more car accidents than any other sign."
...
Second and third place holders for this dubious honor are Taurus and Pisces.
Aquarius came in 6th. (http://horoscopes.aol.com/astrology/best-worst-drivers-libra-scorpio-pisces)


This one names Aquarians and Cancerians the worst:

As part of its latest Crash Index, the AAMI reviewed the over 212,000 claims from 2007, finding Cancerian and Aquarian drivers had the highest claims incidence rate.
Source (http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-19596.html)


It appears Allstate is not the first to analyze this data. Another company, Suncorp Metway, Ltd., did the same study over a three year period of data and ended up with different results. They found that the worst drivers were Geminis, Taurus and Pisces, with the best drivers being Capricorns, Sagittarians and Scorpios.

Yet another company, Norwich Union conducted a similar survey and came up with yet another differing opinion. They report Leos & Cancers as having the highest accidental damage claims.
Source (http://www.bloggernews.net/12215)

Note:

Allstate recently published an advertisement stating they did research on which horoscope signs were historically the best and worst drivers. They claim they were just using this as a fun ad campaign and won’t use the data to increase rates.

That's pretty damning: If insurance companies - these bastions of unadulterated greed - won't act on the data, we can be damned sure it isn't convincing!

15% of all claims are for Ford vehicles with the Vauxhall Corsa model accounting for 5% of claims;

Ford is also one of the most popular cars in the UK. (http://www.automotoportal.com/article/the-continental-divide-the-most-popular-cars-by-continent)

Lo and behold: The most popular cars are also the least reliable. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/the_company_file/359122.stm)

Guess what? Ford and Vauxhall are rated "poor":

Big names such as Ford and Rover came out worst in a manufacturers' reliability league table in the association's Which? Car 1999 publication.
...
But Ford, Vauxhall and Rover were rated as "poor" in the table, as were Citroen, Fiat, Land Rover and Renault.
...
Again, leading manufacturers fared badly, with Ford, Vauxhall, Citroen and Rover in the bottom four places in a list of 32 car companies.


Friday is the most accident-prone day of the week, with Sunday the safest day;

Friday is the day when people drive home for the weekend. The beginning of the weekend. Booze. Duh.

Men make nearly 20% more claims than women.

Possibly because women are better drivers than men.

No evidence of an astrological connection to driving.

[JoeyDonuts]

I defer to the great Mike Nelson.

"And if your hands were metal that would mean something."

[Dave Rogers]

If the Torygraph's representation of a survey conducted by Auto Trader is to be believed (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/3760635/Male-aquarians-are-drivers-most-likely-to-make-insurance-claims.html), the most accident-prone driver on the road is a male aquarius born in 1981.

Oh, astrology. I had this weird vision from the title of pedestrians being flattened by single-sex fishtanks.

Dave

[Euromutt]

With age comes a feeling of responsibility: You will own up to your actions. Not surprising.

And, of course: There is a difference between having an accident and making a claim.
Indeed. My thought regarding the age distribution was that it might indicate that the 36-40 year-olds might have more comprehensive coverage than those younger than they, and simply file more claims because there are more things that their policies cover.

There are other considerations as well. The only accident-related claim I've had to file with my insurance (at age 37, a-ha) was on a rental car. I dinged the front bumper on a concrete bollard. Now, it was purely cosmetic damage, and if it had been my own car, I wouldn't have done anything about it, but because it was rental, I had to file a claim I otherwise wouldn't have.

[Modified]

...the most accident-prone driver on the road is a male aquarius born in 1981.

Yeah, I know that guy. His name is Ernie.

[Modified]

Possibly because women are better drivers than men.

Depends what you mean by "better". Men drive much more than women, so you need to look at per-mile statistics, not per-year. Men have significantly fewer accidents per mile than women, but significantly more fatal accidents.

The same problem invalidates the age-based per-year statistics. I'm sure 90-year-olds have far more accidents per mile than 27-year-olds, but they drive very infrequently.