Cold drives caravan bingles up north

Southerners escaping the winter chill are driving a spike in accidents involving caravans, with claims almost doubling during the winter period, according to a major insurer.

Suncorp crunched claims data to determine that Queensland had the highest number of caravan claims in the country in winter, with August the worst month for accidents.

“Unfortunately, we see a significant spike in caravan claims in Queensland as the temperature drops and most of these could be avoided,” Suncorp's Alexandra Foley said.

Suncorp said it analysed over 14,000 caravan accident insurance claims across Australia, from its network of brands including Suncorp, CIL, Apia, AAMI and GIO.

According to the data, accidents involving caravans typically spike in winter in Queensland as well as another grey nomad hot-spot, Western Australia, while significantly decreasing in Victoria and to a lesser degree, NSW.

Caravans colliding with a stationary object were the most common type of accident, accounting for more than a quarter of all claims.

“This indicates that many drivers probably lack experience in towing and manoeuvring a caravan,” she said.

“In many cases, drivers can avoid these types of accidents and improve their visibility by having a spotter outside the car, installing cameras on the rear of the caravan, or additional mirrors to assist when driving and parking.

“This is especially important for inexperienced drivers because towing a caravan is a very different driving experience. Bad driving habits such as inattention, speeding or following too closely behind other vehicles are amplified and can have dire consequences.