Speed spy for young drivers launched

An pilot scheme using a satellite tracking device to monitor the speed of young drivers to reduce traffic deaths and insurance premiums was launched today.

A sample of 300 young drivers will have the device fitted to their cars under the Traksure scheme. It will record their speed and driving patterns using a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS).

AXA Insurance is operating Traksure in conjunction with O’Reilly Cullen Insurances and Celtrak, the Tuam-based technology firm that developed the system.

The Traksure unit

The unit is about the size of a videotape and is usually fitted under the car's dashboard. It takes speed readings every ten seconds, which are then sent via GSM mobile phone technology to a central monitoring base.

The results are plotted on a map of the area travelled, giving an accurate account of where and when the driver broke the speed limit.

Drivers aged between 20 and 24 with cars under 1,400 cc will be offered reduced annual premiums to enter the three-year pilot scheme.

However, they will have to pay an initial £950 to have the Traksure device installed and a further £300 in the second and third years to pay for monitoring.

Motorists who successfully complete the three years will save up to £2,939 (40 per cent) in premiums and be offered lower rates for the future. Persistent offenders will be given three warnings and then removed from the scheme to face much higher insurance costs.

Mr Aidan Cassels, operations manager at AXA, said this would become a valuable resource in the fight against mounting road deaths on Irish roads, as well as a way of rewarding careful drivers with reduced premiums.

"We know there are safe young male drivers out there, and we want to recognise them," he said. "Not all young males confirm to the stereotype, driving around in blacked-out Honda Civics with big exhausts, doing wheelspins".

Mr Canice O’Reilly, of O’Reilly Cullen Insurances, said he hoped the plan would lead to drivers becoming more conscious of their bad habits.

But Mr Mick Murphy of the Motor Insurance Justice Action Group claimed AXA earns over half its annual profits from young drivers and that "they will stop at nothing to keep it that way".

"The fact that anyone might seriously considering paying £1,500 for a system that would subject them to this level of surveillance is an indication of the desperate situation that young drivers in Ireland find themselves," he said.

Mr Cassels of AXA today responded to this claim, saying that the company actually makes a loss on young drivers, paying out £138 in claims per £100 received in premiums from this sector.