20 year old Max Charles would not be alive if he hadn't had an insurance black box tracking device fitted to his car.
The devices are often fitted by insurance companies to allow young drivers to access lower premiums, as they measure a range of things such as acceleration/braking rate, speed (compared to local limits) and time of day for any journey. Better drivers are rewarded with reduced premium costs.
However, when Charles feel asleep at the wheel at 4am on a quiet country road there were no witnesses or passing traffic, so he was particularly fortunate that the installed device registered the collision and automatically instructed the insurance company to call the emergency services.
The insurance company which fitted the device to Mr Charles' car, Drivelikeagirl, was started to reward careful drivers with lower costs. Luckily the device they fit to help measure driver behaviour can also detect when the impact of a crash exceeds a certain threshold, and makes sure that the emergency services are alerted.
Over 300,000 cars are now fitted with similar devices, which are gaining increasing popularity with young drivers who would otherwise pay much higher premiums.
Mr Charles was in hospital for two and a half weeks. He described the black box device as a "life saver" - despite previously disliking the feeling of constantly being monitored, he added "Now I cannot stress how that privacy is worth sacrificing."
Surrey Police tweeted thanks to the insurance company, saying "Without their help, we would not have found the car and driver so quickly."
Image: Bill Longshaw / freedigitalphotos.net