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Your profession can tell someone a lot about you – a business expert, a tech whiz, someone who is great with people, a highly motivated person. But can your profession tell someone how likely you are to be involved in a car accident? According to a new study from insurer 1st Central, yes it can.

In the figures

According to the insurer, they have compiled a list of the professions with the worst track record based on a review of some 400,000 policyholders. If you are a financial adviser, you may want to turn away now.

The study involved looking at claims made by people across 2017 and their occupations. It showed that financial advisers were topping the charts for the number of claims made so far, this year, an increase from 4th place in the same survey taken in 2016.

Overall, those working in the health industry are the most likely to have an accident with doctors, pharmacists and dentists all being in the top five professions. Of course, this could be connected to factors such as long working hours, stressful jobs and even things like very full hospital car parks – known to be some of the most dangerous places to drive in the country!

Car Accident

The top ten

The top ten professions to have had accidents in 2017 are:

1. Financial adviser
2. Doctor
3. Pharmacist
4. Dentist
5. Solicitor
6. Accountant
7. Aircraft cabin crew
8. IT manager
9. Letting agent
10. Project manager

This compares to the list created at the same time last year that showed the top ten as:

1. Accountant
2. Solicitor
3. Doctor
4. Financial adviser
5. Letting agent
6. Airplane cabin crew
7. Bank manager
8. IT manager
9. Pharmacist
10. Train driver

Some professions have left the top ten entirely including bank manager and train driver (that’s a reassuring one) while others have retained their position as the most likely to be involved in a shunt of some kind.

The least likely

While there are the most likely to have accidents, the study also showed the professions who are least likely to have an accident, based on the figures for this year so far. The occupation least likely to have an accident are painters, a big improvement from last year when they were the 10th least likely to have a bump.

The ten least likely professions to have an accident were:

1. Painter
2. Farm worker
3. Builder
4. Mechanic
5. Lorry driver
6. Factory worker
7. Cleaner
8. Bus driver
9. Chef
10. Ambulance driver

Several of these occupations would be classed as professional drivers such as bus and lorry drivers as well as ambulance drivers so its no surprise to see them on the list.

Drink driving

It is interesting to contrast these lists with the list issued last month by Money Supermarket that looked at the occupations most associated with drink and or drug driving convictions. It found that mature students living at home have a massive 28.5 in 1000 chance of being caught and convicted for this type of offence.

This was followed by mature students living away from home (16.5 per 1000 drivers) and then scaffolders (4.5), labourers (4.3) and ground workers (4.2).

Why it matters

Of course, you aren’t going to change your profession based on the likelihood that you have a crash, but these kinds of figures are used by insurers to help rate professions and therefore the cost of your insurance. Currently, professional sports people like footballers and racing drivers top the charts as the most expensive profession to insure while funfair employees and scrap dealers also rate highly.

At the other end of the scale, occupations such as nurses, coastguards and bursars are rated at the lower end of the scale for insurers based on various data. Women have seen lower rates than men, but this changed in 2012 when new EU directives meant that insurers couldn’t use gender as a rating factor.

Are you one of the professions that has the most or least accidents? Do you agree or disagree with the findings from 1st Central Insurance? Have you been affected by high insurance premiums because of the job that you do or convictions? Let us know in the comments below.

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