1 In 4 Motorists Admit To Driving Without Proper Pet Restraints

Almost one in 4 motorists have driven with unrestrained pets in their car, recent research from the AA has found.

An AA Car Insurance survey of over 4,000 motorists found that 24.88% of those surveyed admitted to driving with a pet in the car without using proper restraints on at least one occasion in their driving career. The survey found that 6.67% of respondents admitted to doing this within the past month, a move which car increase the risk of the driver being distracted while behind the wheel according to the AA.

“Many people will have seen our new car insurance advertising campaign with our dog Mulligan who is a big fan of driving around in the car, but if you are travelling anywhere with a pet it’s important that you use a pet safety belt or a travel carrier as opposed to having them loose in the car with you,” Conor Faughnan, AA Director of Consumer Affairs stated. “While it may seem harmless to allow your pet to pop his head out the window or sit in the passenger seat next to you, animals are, by their nature, unpredictable and could easily become startled or react in a way which takes your concentration off the task at hand. Ultimately, very few people would allow a passenger in their car without using a seatbelt and we need to take the same precaution with our pets too.”

In contrast, the AA Car Insurance survey found that less than 1% of motorists surveyed had driven a car where one or more passengers weren’t using their seatbelts in the past month.

In total, just 0.82% of respondents admitted to driving with an unrestrained passenger in their car in the past month. However, when asked to consider their entire driving history, 11.4% of motorists admitted to driving while one or more passengers were not using their seatbelt on at least one occasion in the past.

“While it is worrying that this is a behaviour we have seen in the past, with almost 1 in 12 motorists admitting to allowing a passenger not use their seatbelt at some point over three years ago, it’s welcome to see such low levels of non-compliance with the use of seatbelts in more recent times. Everyone thinks that it’ll never be them that’s involved in an incident but unfortunately accidents do happen and ensuring everyone in the car is properly restrained could be the difference between a minor bump and a more serious injury or worse,” Faughnan added. “In the event of an accident an unrestrained passenger, whether human or animal, could experience far more severe injuries and potentially cause additional injury to other passengers in the car as they are thrown around the vehicle following the impact.”

“Over the coming weeks and into the summer season more and more of us will be undertaking longer car journeys so it’s important that we all buckle up to keep the roads safe”