I am a retired Insurance Accountant/Insurance company manager. It will be interesting to bear that in mind.
The Association of motor insurers of Spain deem women to be superior drivers based on the lack of claims. Women are safer drivers because they lack the testosterone in their systems to mix with gasoline that we men are afflicted with. Without that mix they usually have no need to prove how cool they are by doing donuts and they are only rarely found to be speed demons. When a driver is showing off and doing totally stupid things it's because he is trying to impress a woman.
So, in spite of all the jokes we men make about women drivers, jokes that are made to cover up our own failings, women turn out to be better drivers than men.
When it comes to the general ratings as to which class of professional driver rates worst and which is best, apparently at the very top of the worst class are we bloody accountants. According to an article I picked up in the Costa News of Spain, in Britain accountants are responsible for about 16,000 claims each year, which is approximately 44 every day. Wow! Why on earth would that be?
I know that we usually carry around in our heads lots of facts and figures, and we're always cross-checking something or the other, but to such an extent that we take our concentration off the road surprises me a lot. For instance, as an accountant I think I am just the opposite. I drive with anticipation of what the other person is likely to do so that I can be ready. It's amazing how right I am, and as a result I have avoided so many crashes because I was ready.
It's hardly likely that accountants drive like lunatics, or on drink or drugs as we accountants tend to be boringly responsible. We are your bankers, (oops!) and insurance company officers, and auditors, and company CEO's and CFO's and billionaires and investment managers, etc.
However, it's important to note that not too far behind accountants are the lawyers who present about 15,000 claims a year. I hope none of you lawyers were laughing at the position we accountants find ourselves in. Amidst the lawyer crowd are to be found the magistrates and judges who would look sternly upon we accountants while pronouncing sentencing for our roles in causing car crashes. They might even tut while declaring how disappointed they are in us.
As if to make matters unnecessarily worse, third in line for these unenviable awards come the doctors. The suggestion is made that they do so badly on the road because they spend all their efforts in doing well in their place of work. These are the very people whom we rely on to redress the wrongs that we do on the road by making whole the people we injure. However, their record on the road is not that enviable either.
The article goes on to say that within the list of worst drivers are also found financial advisors, real estate agents, airline cabin crew and pharmacists. Blimey! This sounds like a case for a major study to determine just what is going on here, especially when we consider that roofers were the group with the best record, followed by farm workers, builders, lorry drivers, cleaners, carpet fitters and butchers.
Definitely there is a pressing need to delve deeply in this mystery. Just leaving things at the statistics stage is not good enough, in spite of the fact that as an accountant I love statistics.
Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael
