Hartford Car Insurance: Don’t Leave the Keys
Hartford Car Insurance: Don’t Leave the Keys 
It’s the middle of winter, the barometer is hovering around 15 degrees at night, and all you want to do is not freeze to death on your drive to work in the morning. So you run down stairs a few minutes before you are ready to leave and start your car to let the engine warm up, the windows defrost and get that heater going. While this is a perfectly logical inclination and common winter practice, pre-starting your engine and leaving the keys in the ignition creates a huge risk that many vehicle owners forget about in their moment of chilly desperation.
Police departments across the country consistently report a large percentage of stolen vehicles were left unattended with the keys still inside as their owners were “just running inside really quickly, or warming up their vehicles on a chilly morning.” It has become such a problem that police officials in Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin all prohibit leaving keys in a car while the engine is running. Some states the penalty fines can be as high as $500, and in St. Paul, Minnesota police are even allowed to remove the keys from the engine and bring them down to a local police station after issuing a fine to the vehicle owner.
For the last few years the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) has been campaigning to warning drivers about the dangers of these practices and offering alternative solutions to that allow drivers to stay warm and keep their vehicles safe. The NICB warns against using one set of keys to start the vehicle and another to lock the vehicle from the outside as a thief could easily break the window and hijack the vehicle. One suggestion the NICB widely supports is using a remote starter that doesn’t require a key to be in the ignition and requires the door locks to be engaged before the engine will start, thus allowing the vehicle to warm up safely while lowering the risk of auto theft.
Protecting your vehicle is important, which is why at Byrnes Agency we strive to help Harford motorists protect themselves and their assets. That’s why we are proud to offer quality Hartford car insurance coverage at affordable rates. Our personal insurance solutions offer our clients the flexibility needed to secure policies tailored to their unique needs and exposures. To learn more about our operation and all of our offerings, contact us at an office near you today.
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Phone: (860) 774-85
394 Lake Rd
Dayville, CT 06241
United States
info@byrnesagency.com
Hours of Operation: Monday- Friday 9:00am-5:00pm
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Phone: (860) 886-5498
6 Consumers Avenue
Norwich, CT 06360
United States
info@byrnesagency.com
Hours of Operation: Monday- Friday 9:00am-5:00pm
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Woodstock Office
Phone: (860) 928-7928
1226 Connecticut 169
Woodstock, CT 06281
United States
info@byrnesagency.com
Hours of Operation: Monday- Friday 9:00am-5:00pm