CAR INSURANCE

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 10 June 1933, Page 12

CAR INSURANCE

THIRD PARTY RISK

The general manager of one of the leading motor insurance companies oi England recently made an interesting statement in respect to the oomph cated business of ear insurance ana third party risks. He stated that the riature and value of the vehicle to be insured are oi secondary importance to the driving ability of the per son at the wheel, and that the human element, with all its baffling vagaries, is the fundamental hazard of the motorist’s comprehensive insurance policy. His company divides motor drivers into three grades. First, the “plus' man; second, the “standard” driver, and, third, the “minus” man. The first is gifted with 'a sub-conscious faculty cf anticipation and preserves a sense of alertness and responsibility commensurate with the dangei s with which he may be confronted at any moment. The second, generally, is the driver or normal skill and judgment. He expects all other road users to carry out their obligations in the same way as lie does himself. But as matters do not always work out .according to his expectations, the “standard” driver is involved occasionally in accidents directly attributable to the carelessness of others. The third type, the “minus” man, is generally of a reckless and speculative nature, not expert at calculating or worrying about odds He hopes for the best when at the wheel, and will dare to do all sorts of things, and accept all risks on the. chance that the road ahead will be clear of traffic. His speculative temperament becomes a real danger when he is in charge of a vehicle. Emphasis was laid on this classification of drivers to indicate the farreaching difficulties with which insui - ance companies have to contend in fixing their rates, and it- was hoped that it would serve -to show the need for all motorists to cultivate •habits of caution, foresight, and anticipation, and thus help to swell the ranks of the “plus” division.

When debating the momentous question of what should be included in the Road Traffic Act as an animal, one member of Parliament in England urged that the common or domestic cat should he classed among the animals. This prompted the SolicitorGeneral to remark: “But you never see a eat in the road.” Soon afterwards a daily newspaper published the following: “Snow fell at Southampton during the greater part of yesterday,, and several motor-cars overturned on snowbound roads leading into the town. Road conditions in the New Forest were the worst known for years. In several places the road? were lined with cats unable to climb the snow-covered hills, and tracks had to bo made with brushwood and twigs pulled from thickets.”

Motorists, in the near future, are to become increasingly familiar with the term hydrogenation, and the process to which this term refers is likely to have a far-reaching effect on the running of their cars, says the “Autocar.” Hydrogenation may be defined as a process in chemical science which does instantly what nature would take many centuries to perform. Jn other words, it changes a given substance. In the case of crude petroleum, with the aid of hydrogen gas and bv the use of great beat ancl exceptional pres, sure, hydrogenation alters and corrects its chemical structure and vastly improves the operating properties of the finished product. At the moment one of the leading oil companies is busy on this task, and the fruits of its efforts are likely to be available in the near future.