"THIRD PARTY" RISK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 204, 29 August 1934, Page 11

"THIRD PARTY" RISK.

NEED OF INSURANCE

LEGISLATION IN AUSTRALIA

(From Out Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, August 21

The other day a case came before the Bankruptcy Court here which illustrated very effectively the necessity for "third party insurance." An estate dealer of Dec Why (near Manly), when driving his car had accidentally injured a small child, and her father obtained £400 damages. But the owner of the ear had not insured, he could not meet the claim and the child's father forced him into bankruptcy. This, as the presiding magistrate said, may be regarded as a typical example of the necessity for compulsory "third party insurance" by motorists.

The subject is u familiar one, and this is not by any means the only case of the kind that has "pointed the moral" recently in regard to "third party risks" in New South Wales. In response to a strong public demand the Stevens Government proposes to take legislative action in this matter. A bill, already drafted, is to be submitted to Parliament making insurance of motor cars and comprehensive third party insurance compulsory for all motor vehicle owners. As is well known, compulsory insurance of this sort is in force in England an J also in Xew Zealand, where the Act, which has been in operation for six years, is regarded as successful. But in this matter Xew South Wales has been outstripped by Victoria, which Is already, through its Legislative Assembly, considering a bill "to institute financial protection for those injured in motor accidents, but not associated with the control of the vehicle." The main points of this measure are that the vehicle and not the driver is insured jagainst third party risks; that the injured party has to prove negligence; that the hospitals are entitled to claim for expenses up to 20 per cent of the award. Of course, the most important feature of the bill from the third party standpoint is that, if his claim succeeds. he will be certain to get his money.

The Victorian bill differs from the Xew Zealand Act in one important particular; for, in Xew Zealand, there is a fixed scale of insurance premiums, but in Victoria a board or committee is to decide upon the fees. But the purpose of these measures is the same, and there is no reason why a statutory precaution which has proved successful in England and Xew Zealand should not be equally satisfactory in Victoria and Xew South' Wales.