Car insurers have always used information contained in our driving records to help them determine our likelihood of filing a claim. But a new study from LexisNexis and RGA Reinsurance Company suggests those motor vehicle records (MVRs) that auto insurers love to look at so much might also have something to say about how likely we are to die, and not just in a car crash.
Obviously, everyone’s likelihood of dying at some point is 100 percent. When insurance companies talk about your likelihood of dying, what they mean is the likelihood that you will die during a set period of time, based on your personal characteristics. This is referred to as “mortality,” and when insurers look at all deaths without respect to their cause, it’s referred to as “all-cause mortality.”
According to the study released this week, motorists who have had serious violations like DUIs and excessive speeding “have all-cause mortality rates that are 70 percent higher than individuals that do not. Additionally, the presence of six or more driving violations on an MVR elevates an individual’s all-cause mortality rate by 80 percent.” So if you have a bad driving record, you might have more cause to fear the reaper than your neighbor who has a totally clean record.
The two companies looked at more than 7.4 million MVRs for the analysis, and they found that the trends held steady across all age groups and for both men and women. The correlation between MVRs and mortality for women, however, was more pronounced. The analysis showed that women have fewer major incidents on their driving records compared with men; but when they did have incidents on their record, their mortality rate was twice as high as women with no violations. Men with major violations had mortality rates that were 61 percent higher than men without major violations.
LexisNexis and RGA suggest that life insurance companies follow car insurance companies’ footsteps and start utilizing MVRs in their underwriting formulas. So having a shoddy driving record may mean more than just being a high-risk driver. It could just mean that you’re a high risk. Period.
