Mirror, Signal, Mascara: Car accidents are being caused by women applying make-up

We all know that us women love getting glammed up, but doing it while driving is a bit risky even for the most confident of make-up artists. With half a million road accidents a year being caused by women drivers applying make-up, women should really consider applying or topping up make-up before starting their journey.

Add to your make-up or add to your no claims bonus?

If you apply your make-up while driving the chances are you’ll need to apply for a car accident claim pretty soon too. Previously, careless driving offences including applying make-up, eating and map reading were punishable only by a fine, however now you can also get points on your licence and even spend up to six months in prison for dangerous driving.

Applying make-up in the car while driving without getting into an accident is a fine art-but do you really want to risk a fine? About one-fifth of the female motorists surveyed confessed that they had touched up their mascara on the move - equivalent to 2.7 million of Britain's 15 million women drivers. The survey found that young women, aged between 17 and 21, were most likely to put beauty before safety.

Everyone knows you shouldn't be dealing with other distractions while driving, especially while you're on the fast-paced freeway. But in a world where there's so little time and so much to do, sometimes you don't have a choice, you have to drive and in this case, put make up on while you're doing it. It is known as a bad habit, but necessary to do at times. After all, if you're not looking your best when you get to wherever you're going to, what's the point of getting there at all?

If you want to protect your eyes from sunlight wear sunglasses, if you want to protect your eyes from getting poked – don’t apply make-up while driving. It may be the case that women are much better than men at multi-tasking but driving and applying a full face of make-up it slightly out of their league. However great at doing more than one thing at once women are this is definitely one area where multitasking should not be practiced.

Make up your mind:

It appears that women become more safety-conscious as they grow older - only 6% of women aged 56 or older said they are least likely to apply make-up while at the wheel and just 0.5% in that age group admitted having an accident while applying make-up.

Despite the dangers, a fifth of women drivers confess they have touched up their make-up on the move. With 27% confessing to putting on make-up while driving and 9% of those aged 18 or younger admitted having crashed their vehicle while doing so- three times the average.

A survey earlier this year regarding driving distractions - found that seven out of ten drivers believe that applying make-up behind the wheel should lead to an automatic ban. Some people are fully aware of the hazards involved in attempting to put on make-up while driving, while others either seem completely oblivious to the consequences or live such a hectic lifestyle they don’t have the time to do these routine tasks before setting off to work.

Driving requires concentration and even a momentary lapse could turn a near-miss into a serious or even fatal accident. Common sense says apply make-up before or after driving.