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You are most likely to write off your car on a Saturday
Almost half of insured cars are written off on weekends, with Fridays and Mondays the next highest risk days.
Almost half of all vehicle write-offs occur over weekends. Picture: iStock
If you own an insured car, statistics show that you are most likely to write it off on a Saturday. Around 7pm to be exact.
Data collected by King Price Insurance, between January 2021 and May 2023, provides fascinating insight into vehicle write-offs. In insurance terms, a vehicle is written off when it is deemed to be either structurally irreparable or uneconomical to repair, resulting in a total loss.
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Telling car insurance data
According to the data, 23% of all write-off incidents occur on a Saturday, followed by 20% on Sundays. This means that a staggering 46% of all write-offs occur over weekends.
Saturday and Sundays are followed by Fridays (17%) and Mondays (12%). Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are deemed the lowest-risk days with a combine total of only 28%.
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The data represents comprehensively insured cars not older than seven years.
Taking it one step further, the data also shows which times during those days represent the highest risk. Early evenings pose the highest probability of a write-off, with 7pm being the absolute peak.
The lowest-risk times are early mornings before 5am.
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“Our statistics show a weekday spike in write-off incidents around the morning and evening rush-hour times. Especially 7am and 5pm, respectively. This probability is explained by the fact there tend to be far more vehicles on the road during these periods,” says Wynand van Vuuren, client experience partner at King Price Insurance.
Early evenings most dangerous
Van Vuuren adds that multiple-vehicle collisions are the most common cause of write-offs.
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“It’s also worth noting the higher risk of write-offs in the evenings is largely driven by weekend occurrences. Rush-hour accidents have a similar effect on weekday morning figures,” says Van Vuuren.
King Price Insurance recommends that motorists limit their travel on higher-risk days and at higher-risk times when possible.
King Price, that has been offering car insurance for over a decade, says keeping your vehicle in a roadworthy condition, driving safely and obeying the rules of the road are all self-evident courses of action in avoiding any possible incidents on the road.
