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Simon Waters wrote: > Men start worse drivers (when young) and get relatively better, women > start better and get relatively worse with increasing age (I don't know > if they corrected for living longer!). I wonder if that remains true if > you exclude individuals with health problems! > Until comparatively recently if you were disabled the insurance companies would sting you for it. I have proof of this as on one occasion the person I spoke to screwed up and told me their quote included 'a £50 surcharge for the disability'. This was going back some years and needless to say if that had been said recently they'd have been sued by now. The picture is now much better although still not perfect. I had a quote online last year but very few of the websites allow you to specify a) you're disabled and b) any modifications to the car are for mobility *not* performance. Several companies refuse to quote if you say the car is modified. One such company telephoned me the next day about the quote. I pointed out that their website had not allowed me to state I was disabled and asked how that would affect my quote. Maybe I am over-sensitive but the fractional pause before she replied *I think* was while 'Disability Discrimination Act' scrolled through her mind. Then she replied 'No affect at all'. My main point though is that 20 years ago when I wanted to drive I had to: a) attend a full day assessment centre to see if I was physically and mentally safe to be allowed on the roads. This included the American eye test of visual acuity in both eyes, and peripheral vision. The UK test could be passed by someone blind in one eye with tunnel vision in the other - hopefully this has radically altered since I passed! b) only *then* apply for a provisional license. c) have lessons from an instructor qualified to teach the disabled. Given that someone able-bodied can pop in the Post Office, apply for a license and get a parent to teach them, why should I having passed all those official barriers then be deemed a higher risk than an able-bodied driver? It's not like I'm going to buy an old banger and/or pile it high with performance kit. Per capita/miles driven I'd bet disabled drivers are no worse than anyone else. I won't claim better, that would be arrogant. Kind regards, Julian -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html