How Accident Prone Is Your Profession?

Does the job you do affect how likely you are to cause a car accident? New research suggests that it does, with surgeons found to be one hundred times more likely to cause a crash than building society clerks.

Analysis of two million car insurance claims by a leading price comparison site has found that healthcare professionals are more likely to cause a car accident than people in other jobs. We look at this research and reveal the top ten most accident-prone jobs.

Medical professionals most likely to cause a car accident

Research from a leading website has found that medical professionals are significantly more likely to cause a car accident than other professions. The analysis, published in the Daily Telegraph, revealed that surgeons are more likely to be responsible for an accident than any other profession, with 361 claims per 1,000 drivers.

Nine of the top ten leading occupations for ‘at fault’ claims were in the healthcare sector. GPs were the second most likely to cause a crash with a third of them being responsible for an ‘at fault’ car insurance claim within the last five years. Other professions that had a high proportion of claims included consultants, district nurses and dental surgeons.

Kevin Pratt, a car insurance expert at Moneysupermarket, the company who carried out the analysis, believes that it could be the stress of these occupations that results in so many car accidents.

“There is no doubt that surgeons, GPs and health visitors are all stressful jobs, so lack of time or tiredness could mean that these drivers are more likely to make an at fault claim," said Mr Pratt.

The British Medical Association has recently warned that some hospital doctors are still working 100-hour weeks, despite European laws. Not only are surgeons and consultants therefore working long hours but they are also in stressful professions where the outcome of their work is literally life or death.

Probation officers were the only non-medical profession in the top 10 most accident prone jobs. While this may not be considered as stressful a job as a surgeon, probation officers do spend a lot of time in the car meeting offenders, victims and the police and this could be the reason why they are involved in more road accidents.

Clerks are least likely to cause a car crash

At the other end of the spectrum, the data revealed that office clerks, funfair employees and typists are the least likely to cause a car accident. Just four in 1,000 building society clerks had been responsible for an ‘at fault’ accident while pickers, packers and abattoir workers were also in the top ten professions least likely to be responsible for an accident.

Many of the jobs on this list are either manual or low-stress professions which could explain why people in these professions have a greater level of concentration when behind the wheel.