Dangerous Driving Insurance Penalty

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30636, 30 December 1964, Page 1

Dangerous Driving Insurance Penalty

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, December 29. Drunken or dangerous driving convictions and persistent accident-causing behaviour in a motor-vehicle commonly leads to the imposition of penalties by insurers in New Zealand.

A London cable message yesterday quoted a scale of standardised penalties, to be adopted by insurers, against those convicted of drunken driving. Greatly increased premiums and excess payments were reported to have been agreed upon. “While there is no actual scale, insurers here, as a matter of course, deal selectively with people who have been convicted of drunken or dangerous driving,” said the president of the council of the Fire and Accident Underwriters’ Association (Mr K. R. Congreve) today. “This is done in the same way as reported from London —by increasing premiums or stipulating a higher excess, or both.” Mr Congreve said each case

was treated on its merits, but it was common to point out to the “hazardous” client that he obviously did not warrant the same type of cover as a person who did not have accidents associated with drunken or dangerous driving.

Excess payments required of such drivers might be agreed upon as £5O, £75, or £lOO, according to circumstances.

If the insured did not find the penalty acceptable, he was free to "shop around.” In proposing for insurance with another company, however, he was obliged to state relevant facts from his insurance history and it was then up to the new company to suggest whatever higher premium of excess it thought suited the case. “If we let the identifiable hazards of dangerous or drunken driving cause accidents repeatedly without penalty, then the careful driver would in effect be subsidising the direct costs of such anti-social behaviour,” said Mr Congreve.