First-born children get a lot of benefits over their siblings.
They don’t get hand-me-downs, they’re bigger, they can tell their younger siblings what to do – it’s a pretty sweet deal. But one area older siblings fall down on is driving, according to a study from Privilege Car Insurance.
The study looked at the driving habits of 1,396 motorists and produced some truly damning statistics on first-born children’s driving. The report found that 89% of eldest children speed, 35% of which have been caught and fined for the offence.
Nearly half (47%) cut up other drivers on the road, while 46% admitted to hogging the middle of the road.
That’s all pretty bad, but the stats get even more surprising: 30% of first-born children said they used mobile phones while driving, and 17% admitted to applying make-up while in the driver’s seat.
All of this adds up to the revelation that older siblings are more likely to have an accident, with 22% having a minor incident and 15% having a serious incident in the last five years.
Younger siblings scored much lower in all of these scores, but the best road users actually tend to be only children, according to the study. For example, they were the least likely to cut up a driver (36%) and least likely to hog the middle or outside lanes (31%).
So there you go. Younger siblings, this is your chance to score some points. Older siblings, take it easy out there, yeah?
