INJURIES ON THE ROAD

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 255, 24 July 1936, Page 10

INJURIES ON THE ROAD

Payment of Compensation In All Cases MINISTER’S SUGGESTION The payment out of the insurance pool of compensation for all injuries on the road irrespective of whether the motorist was negligent or not was favoured by the Attorney-General. Hon. H. G. R. Mason, when referring to road accident cases during his reply to the second reading debate on the Judicature Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives yesterday. Mr. Mason said he was of opinion that in dealing with such cases there should be something similar to the Workers' Compensation Act, which does not require negligence as a basis of compensation. The Attorney-General said it had been suggested that juries in road accident cases would be influenced by knowledge of the fact that the verdict would not fall on the nominal defendant but on the insurance pool. He did not think the remedy in those cases was a special tribunal. In his opinion the real solution of the question was an alteration in the nature of the claim itself There was no reason for a claim being based on the negligence of the man driving the car. If the driver were indemnified by the insurance pool he was not punished. “If juries are diverging from the law through considerations of sympathy it is because the logical basis of the law has gone,” said Mr. Mason. “The jury system will not stand up to a situation that is repugnant to common sense. All injuries on the road should be compensated, irrespective of whether the motorist is negligent or not. That is the only solution of the problem, and I hope later to raise the issue in practical form.”