Telematics box saves drivers life

A telematics device has saved a drivers life after it sent a message to his insurer when the car stopped with sudden force, according to a story published today on the Mail Online.

The story reported that Max Charles, who was 18 at the time, was involved in a serious car accident which left him with a brain injury and in intensive care for two-and-a-half weeks. However, these injuries ‘could have killed him’ if it wasn’t for the telematics device from insurethebox that had been installed under his car dashboard.

As soon as a car incurs a major shock, the telematics device sends a message to the insurance company. And, because the device has built-in GPS location technology, it acts as a homing device for emergency services.

His insurance company, Drive Like A Girl, had received data about the crash and called the emergency services, giving his precise location. In Max’s case, this proved a life-saver, because no one saw his crash on a remote country road in the middle of the night.

Max, now 19, from Leatherhead, Surrey, said, ‘I feel so lucky to be alive. My dad and I had no idea my insurance had this accident alert feature. We just bought the policy because we’d heard about how it can help cut insurance costs for new drivers.’

Not all telematics car insurers offer the alert service. It is offered only by insurethebox, its sister brand Drive Like A Girl and Tesco Bank’s Box insurance.

insurethebox says that on average the emergency services are alerted 18 times a month. Mike Brockman, chief executive of insurethebox, said. ‘We have spent the past five years building the trust of the various emergency services across the country.

‘To avoid burdening them unnecessarily, we have very strict criteria as to when we will call them. We were delighted to learn that this young driver is making a good recovery.’