What it is

Hydroplaning occurs when built-up water on roadways is not sufficiently pushed out of the way by your vehicle’s tires when going at a regular or high speed. The water then causes your vehicle to rise and slide on top of a thin layer of water between your tires and the road. All traction is lost in less than a second and you have very limited control of your vehicle. 

There is no precise equation to determine the speed at which a vehicle will hydroplane. In general, cars hydroplane at speeds above 45 MPH , where water ponds to a depth of at least 0.10 inches over a distance of 30 feet or more.

What to do if it happens

If you find yourself hydroplaning, stay calm. Don’t brake or turn suddenly. Ease your foot off the gas, and hold the wheel firmly. Do not steer in any direction other than straight. If you do need to brake — and don’t have anti-lock brakes — do so gently with a pumping action.

How to prevent it

Drive slowly and carefully: When it’s raining or there is water on the road take your time around curves and steer and brake with smooth, light touches. Most of America’s roads are crowned, meaning water will run to the sides and puddles will accumulate. So, keep towards the middle of the road and drive in the tire tracks left by cars in front of you.

Be extra cautious at intersections: This is a common location where engine oil and water mix, creating extremely slick spots.

Check your tires: Worn tires will hydroplane more easily for lack of tread depth. Underinflation can cause a tire to deflect inward, raising the tire center and preventing the tread from clearing water. Tires that present the greatest risk are small in diameter and wide.

Add weight: More weight on a properly inflated tire lengthens the contact patch, improving its aspect ratio. This is more important for vehicles hauling unloaded trailers and empty pickup trucks with uneven weight distribution. Caution - weight can actually have the opposite effect if the tire is underinflated.

Avoid using cruise control: There is a chance that your car will accelerate if you hydroplane, and your reaction time will be slower if using cruise control.

Let us know if you have any questions, comments or experiences about hydroplaning below.

When Do I Need to Get Car Insurance for My Teen?

The simple answer is to check with your insurance agent. Each car insurance company has different requirements for adding new drivers. Some require that new drivers are added to a car insurance policy when they first get their permit and others wait until they are licensed.

Should My Teen Have Their Own Car Insurance Policy?

From a risk perspective, teen drivers should have their own car insurance policy. A separate policy for a teen is more likely to keep a teen’s accidents or violations from affecting the parent’s policy. This helps to protect mom and dad’s car insurance price from going up or being cancelled/non-renewed because of a teen driver. Note that for a teen driver to have a separate policy, most car insurance companies require that the teen’s car is solely titled or co-titled in the teen’s name. Also remember that car insurance follows the car. So if a teen gets into an accident while driving the parent’s car, the accident would be on the parent’s policy, not the teen’s.

From a price perspective it is usually cheaper to put a new teen driver on the parent’s car insurance policy. The parents normally qualify for more discounts and have a better insurance score that leads to lower insurance prices. Regardless, have an insurance agent quote a teen driver on their own policy and on the parent’s policy. The price difference may be small and worth separating the risk.

How Can I Keep the Price Low?

Stay Accident and Violation Free – Accidents and violations are the quickest way for a car insurance policy to skyrocket in price. One way to help prevent accidents and violations is communicating about driving tips and setting driving guidelines. Go to Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to share driver safety tips with your teen and learn how parents can effectively teach a teen to drive.

Shop Around – According to the PA Insurance Dept “A good rule of thumb is to get quotes from at least 3 different insurance companies”. Different car insurance carriers rate teen drivers differently and shopping a few different car insurance companies helps ensure the best car insurance solution for your family’s situation. Remember that the lowest price is not always the best solution and make sure to compare “apples to apples” when getting quotes.

Good Grades Matter – Most car insurance companies offer good grade discounts of 5-10% for students with a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Edmunds.com suggests finding out how much you can save if your teenager gets the discount and giving all or a portion of that money back to your teen. This not only provides a reward for academic performance but it motivates the teen to continue to get good grades.

Driver Training Pays – Most car insurance companies offer a driver training discount if a young driver completes a combination of classroom instruction and behind the wheel training from an accredited driver training course. Click here to find a driver training school near Lancaster, PA.

Don’t Finance a Car – Normally the biggest cost for a teen’s car insurance policy is the comprehensive and collision coverage, which covers damage to their car. Financed cars are required to carry both comprehensive and collision coverage because the financing organization wants to ensure that they get their money back if the car is damaged or totaled. The best advice is to buy a used and reliable car with safety features (airbags, ABS brakes, keyless entry) that does not require financing. That way you can choose to add comprehensive or collision coverage and keep the car insurance price reasonable.

If you have any other teen related car insurance questions, please leave them in the comment box below.

To help determine if raising your car insurance deductible is a good financial decision, you need to analyze the payback period.  The payback period is how long it would take to buy back your deductible from insurance premium savings. It can be calculated in 4 simple steps and is best explained by using an example.

Assume that our friend Mr. Fancypants is paying $1000 per year for car insurance and he currently has a $250 collision deductible on his car. To save money, Mr. Fancypants wants to increases his collision deductible to $500 making his auto insurance drop to $900 per year. Is raising Mr. Fancypants collision deductible the most economical decision using the payback period method?

Step 1: Calculate Retained Risk – When you raise your deductible that means you will pay more out of your own pocket before the insurance policy starts to pay.  Originally Mr. Fancypants would pay the first $250 for a collision claim but raising his deductible means he would now pay the first $500. Thus, Mr. Fancypants is retaining $250 of additional risk by increasing his deductible. (Learn more about retained risk in our prior blog article)

New Deductible – Original Deductible = Additional Retained Risk
$500 – $250 = $250 (Additional Retained Risk)

Step 2: Calculate the Savings – Since Mr. Fancypants is retaining more risk, the car insurance policy goes down to $900 per year and he saves $100 per year.

Original Premium – New Premium = Savings per Year
$1000 – $900 = $100 (Savings per Year)

Step 3: Calculate Payback Period – The payback period in this example is how long Mr. Fancypants would have to drive without having a covered collision claim to make his money back. It is calculated by dividing his additional retained risk (Step 1) by the additional savings (Step 2) for raising his collision deductible.  For Mr. Fancypants, he would have to drive 2.5 years without a covered collision accident claim before he would make his money back from the savings on his policy.

Additional Retained Risk / Savings per Year = Payback Period (yrs)
$250/$100 = 2.5 years

Step 4: Compare Payback Period – Since Mr. Fancypants does not actually know how long he will drive without having a collision accident, he needs a guideline to help make a decision. A general rule of thumb is if the payback period is less than 4 or 5 years, it usually makes financial sense to increase your car insurance deductible. Since the payback period for Mr. Fancypants is 2.5 years, the payback period method suggests that he should raise his deductible.

Remember that the payback period is just one guideline for making the decision to raise your insurance deductibles. Other factors to consider would include your likelihood to submit a car insurance claim, if you have the cash to pay the higher deductible and your prior driving record just to name a few.

Have you used the payback period to determine if your car insurance deductible are the most economical? Leave a comment below.

AVOID: This one is pretty straight forward. If you don’t participate in a particular activity or own a particular property, you eliminate the risk all together. This method is the easiest to execute but it can be the hardest to resist. Here are just a few examples of avoiding a risk:

• Not licensing a teenage driver who is clearly irresponsible

• Not buying a backyard trampoline because it is impossible to prevent neighborhood children from using it and potentially hurting themselves

• Not going skydiving (I’ve always wanted to do this, though!)

REDUCE: Obviously we cannot avoid everything, otherwise, we would never leave the house or cross the street. That’s why the next way to manage risk is to reduce it. Most of the time reducing risk is just a matter of using common sense and actually doing the things you know you should be doing in the first place.

• Having your chimney cleaned every year to reduce the chance of a fire

• Checking the prongs on your diamond engagement ring to reduce the chance of losing the stone

• Not drinking and driving to reduce the risk of a car accident

RETAIN: The third and final non-insurance way to manage risk is to pay the loss out of your own pocket, or retaining it. Most people retain risk when they carry a car insurance deductible or when they don’t buy earthquake coverage for their home in Lancaster County PA. However, retaining risk is only good when it is intentional. Unintentional retention of risk is bad news because you’re not aware the risk exists in the first place and you likely don’t have the money to pay for it. Some examples of unintentional risk include:

• Not having any coverage to repair or replace your finished basement after your sump pump failed and the overflow water damaged it

• Only receiving $1,000 after your $5,000 engagement ring gets stolen

• Not having any coverage to protect against a lawsuit when a customer visits your home-based business and falls on your icy sidewalk

TRANSFER: The final way to manage risk is to transfer the risk from you to another party. Buying insurance is the most common type of risk transfer. With insurance you pay a predetermined premium and in return the insurance carrier absorbs the losses that you otherwise would have to pay. Insurance makes the most sense when the risk is large but the cost to transfer the risk is small. Here are just a few examples when it makes sense to buy insurance:

• Transferring the risk of rebuilding your $200,000 home after a fire for a few hundred dollars

• Getting coverage for your $30,000 SUV if you are at fault for damaging your own car

• Buying liability insurance to protect your assets from a lawsuit

Insurance really is a piece of A.R.R.T. because insurance is the Transfer of risk. However, it is important to understand that risk can also be managed by using non-insurance methods too. That’s why your insurance agent should always explore all options to manage your personal risk and help you identify the unintentional retained risks that you may not even be aware of.

Do you have an ARRT masterpiece to manage risk or do you need to get the paint brush out for some touchup? Please leave a comment below.