BAN ON MOTOR INSURANCE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22436, 24 June 1938, Page 16

BAN ON MOTOR INSURANCE

HIGH RATE OF ROAD ACCIDENTS AUSTRALIAN FIRMS ARE WORRIED NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL’S CAMPAIGN Traffic accidents in Victoria have reached such a high proportion that not every insurance firm in Melbourne will insure motorists, and those who will are frankly worried. Of the total accidental deaths in Victoria in 1937 311 were due to motor vehicle accidents, an increase of 67 in the number for 1936, and 112 on the average for the previous six years. The loss on insurance premiums is so heavy that at the most the profit is only 2 per cent, in motor-car insurance, insurance men complain. Compulsory insurance, it is felt, must come some day. It is the law now in South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania; and New Zealand has had it for years. Acts will probably be introduced this year in Victoria and New South Wales. Insurance companies naturally do not approve altogether, because the premium is established by a State board at too low a rate and does, not give them any opportunity to select risks—the fundamental law of insurance. • Where there is compulsory, insurance the companies must accept the risks’ average. Experiments now being conducted in America suggest that the education of drivers is the best approach to a solution of the traffic accident problem. In the United States there were 34,183 motor-car accidents in 1935, a record which caused alarm to insurance companies, safety councils and Congress itself. Teaching Children About Motoring With these startling statistics before them the companies launched a campaign of safety traffic codes and student education. A beginning was made with educating children in high schools. A thousand students in one high school were put through a course of training. They were taught all about the making _ of a 'car and then were allowed to drive one. When they left high school those thousand students drove an aggregate of 7,000,000 miles—a distance of 7000 miles each —without an accident or traffic violation, for one month at Rhode Island. Then 1000 careful drivers were put through the same test, and their average. without the training course, was for 7,000,000 miles, five killed, 151 injured. and much property damaged! . High school students averaging from 14 to 18, and some about 20, are now taking this course in 5000 schools. Those who are given driving lessons at the age of 16 do the best examinations, it is found. Girls as well as boys study ■ traffic codes, makes of cars, and the art of driving. Insurance companies in America believe that as a rule young people between 20 and 30 have more accidents than others, because they belong to the joy riding age class. Joy riding in a powerful car is a very different thing from joy riding in the older cars of several years ago. Tests in Australia have proved that many serious accidents are caused by high-powered cars in the hands of more or less irresponsible persons. The average age of a car in Australia is seven years. In America it is only four or five years. v As older cars with smaller horsepower are being replaced by new cars there Is more fast driving by people who are not used to it. Moreover, as conditions improve on the streets and roads people speed more, congestion grows, and there are more accidents. These high-powered cars cost more to repair than the old ones. Undercarriages. turret tops of steel, safety glass, and so on are expensive, and the cost of repairs is out of all proportion to the ‘life of the car for insurance. The remedy, it is felt, may be found in a rigid observance of traffic codes and an improvement in the mentality of the driver.

Safety Council’s Work In Melbourne the National Safety Council is doing excellent work. It is co-operating now with the illuminating engineering society regarding headlamp glare; it awards two scholarships to a boy and a girl for the best projects on safety, and it has issued 250,000 booklets with drivers’ licences on road traffic regulations in the metropolitan area of Victoria. Even school blotters have safety ilr lustrations to-day, and copy books, instead of proverbs like “A Stitch, in Time Saves Nine” have messages printed on safety methods. A safe driving campaign has been established for private car drivers, and awards are made for each year of freedom from accidents. Booklets are issued to drivers on road courtesy, and many specific road dangers are investigated and referred to the authorities. These are steps in the right direction. but experts would have drivers subjected to more rigid examinations for their licences, have the City Council restrict speeds rigidly in congested areas, and maintain the traffic code to the letter.

The Dangerous Ages Classifying accidents in age groups, America has found that most people are killed between the ages of 45 and 49, 25 and 29, and 90 and 94. In 1910 deaths from falls headed all fatalities.

but by 1935, though falls had increased, automobile accidents took first place. The percentage rose in 22 years from 2 per cent, to a total of accidental motor-car deaths of 34 per cent.! One of the most significant facts is that half of all accidentally killed persons were in the age group under 45. The majority of motor vehicle deaths were in the group under 44. In a world survey of accidental death rates made by the United States, accident figures differ strikingly in various countries. Deaths per 10,000 motor vehicles in each country give Italy (1934) the highest total with 61,4; Ceylon comes next (1935) with 55.5: then the Netherlands (1935) with 51.1; Switzerland (1935) ,■"49.1; Germany (1934), 42.4; Belgium (1934). 43.6; Chile (1935), 31.4; Irish Free State (1935), 26.0; England and Wales (1935), 24.6; Canada (1935), drops to 10.5; Australia (1935). is 16.8; and the United States (1935), 13.0; New Zealand (1935) is only 7.5, the lowest recorded. South Africa registered 11,2 for 1934.

BRITAIN’S ACCIDENTS Early in May, a return was presented to Parliament showing the number of accidents in Great Britain during 1937 resulting in death or injury, in which vehicles and horses were concerned. There were 6433 fatal accidents, compared with 6359 during the previous year. The number of accidents without fatal results was 189,935, compared with 192.619 in the previous year. Persons ■ killed totalled 6633, and 226,402 were injured, compared with 6561 and 227.813 during 1936, , , There were 3002 pedestrians killed, the lowest recorded number during the last 10 years, while the number of injured.