WHITY FEE RFs.. FDNPflL.. flU~Mà 79. Io Y Dt-mi3- Z "I have sworn. upon the altar of God eternal hoatility againat every form of tyranny over the mind Of man," - Thomas Jefferson eb Advise-ad Dissent uurInurance 'is co&mig me $msu Oua year for our two cars. This may seern low to sorne readers, but conidering that neither rny wife nôr 1 have been involved in anat-fault accident In the last 20 years, I think it la rather high. After ail, in- surance la bastcally a means of averaging the risk and associated costs over an e xtended period of time. If our past driving records can be assumed to be any in- dication, we represent only a very srnal risk to'the insurance company and hen- ce our. prerniums should at this point reflect the coats of the paperwork only. As $630 la a bit steep for, paperwork, I have to conclude that our prerniu is being used to subsidize the less careful driving habits of others. The insurance industry would probably blarne ry prerniuzns on the under-25 age group wbiose accident rate la weil above the average - but many, probably rnost, of these drivers are as rnuch victims of the systern as I arn. The trutlu of it la that moat of us are basically pretty good drivers and the arnount of insurance we pay is too high. The excess premiunus is used to subsidize a relatively smal number of drivers who would have to pay tens of thouaands a year in order to psy for their dlaims. These people are a hazard to the rest of us and should not even be driving. If their insurance premiums reflected their risk level, they would be unafable toafford the insurance and would be forced off the road. We would ail be safrand our Insurance would cost lesa. The insurance izdustry hasbeen under a lot of fire in the last couple of years and recentiy an Ontario Task Force on Insurance has recomrnended a no-fault system of automobile dlaim settlement such as has been in place In Quebec since i-978.. This proposai has been met by some qulte determined opposition and the Peterson government lias decided to study the matter sorne more. Newspapers receive mountains of press releases, briefs, position papers and miscellaneous information frorn the widest assortrnent of special interest groups. TWo rëeet* packages, both quite substantial, have corne frorn the Canadian Independent Adjuster's Association and a group that cails itself FAIR (Fair Action ini Insurance Reforrn - which appears to be an association of lawyers active in Insurance iltigation). Both groups are opposed to no-fault insurance as proposed.' The important points in their briefs are: 1) If fault for accidents is not deterrnined, then insurance prerniurns will be the sarne for everybody regardless of the care with which they drive - if that happens there wil be no incentive to be a careful driver. A study done in Quebec shows, even after correcting for a number of unrelated variables, that since no-fault was introduced ini 1978, there has been an il per cent Increase in property darnage ac- cidents, a 28 per cent increase in Injury accidents and a 5 per cent increase in fatal ac'cidents. 2) No-fault pays equaily to both the at-fault person and his victirn. Since the at- fault person presently pays (or carries separate collision insurance) for his own vehicle,< the payouts under no-fault would be expected to increase sharply - and so will our premlurns. 3) Çlaim settlernent under no-fault la arbitrary with no recourse to the courts.- the concert pianfist who lost a finger would be cornpensated exactly the same as the baker orsétockbroker. 4) Long-terrn payments would ha based on current income. Since prerniums would not ha based on incorne, the l0w-income earner wil pay the same premitum for less coverage -the poor would besubsdizig the rich. The major reason in favor of a no-fault syatern la the inefficiency of our courts i dealing wlth dlaimns and the high costs associated with them. Ail but a very smal percentage of claims are crenly settued out of court, in part becausç it is so much faster.i Certainly our courts need to ha reformed but lirniting the rights of drivers to fair comipensation does not seern to ha an appropriate way to do ItL Delay,. adjourmnents, remanda, etc. have become so ingrained into our court 1 system that I sometiznes fid myseIf envying those lesa democratic countries 1 which can bring a person from arrest, to trial, to sentencing in a matter of weeks. 1 No-fault insurance wil not solve the endemic weaknesses of an archalc legai system. 1 One improvement that could ha made to car insurance would ha to ensure drivers rather than cars. For sorne reason our system la set up in the strange é hallef that it 's the cars that have the accidents. There la, of course, a tacit recognition that people drive them; the insurance application asks you to ist ail regular drivers and the prernium la based on their age, sex and drivlng records. 1 But infrequent divers, with or without your permission, are stili covered by your premiums even if they steal your car. Why la the insurance not carried by the major risk factor, the driver? Let evidence of insurance ha a requirernent to t renew the driver's license. Such an arrangement would avoid some of the ob- vious abuses of the current system.U -If insurance was on the driver, then rates could ha truly individualized. A few s years ago there were cases hafore the courts that clairned that insurance rates 0 based on age or sex were discriminatory and hence iflegal. There were loud cries n fromthe insurance companies that a cornerstone of their industry was injeopar- dy; however, I have heard nothing since. Were they quietly settled out of court or are they stilI tied up in the Interminable delays that rack the system? In any case, their argument is ludicrous - 19-year-olds as a group may have more accid- t enits but the way one 19-year-old drives lias absolutely nothing to do with how I aaother one drives. 0 Every driver who has been driving for a few years lias a driving record which can ha used as a basis for setting premiums. New drivers, irrespective of their e age, should hagin at a rnedian level which would ha adjusted up or down accor- a ding to theiroôwn individual driving performance.a >If drivers are flot paying according ta the quallty of their driving, the incentive ta drive well disappears. The police appear unable to rid the roads of the drunks and the manlacs - perhaps insurance preniuma in the $10,000-plus range which te accurately reflect due damage they cause could solve tue problem. d WITH OUR FEET UP <Get any group of people together who, share a workplace and the talk èventual turns to shop. Or starts out tlat way. Nurses are compare notes on fleet enemas, doc- tord trade talk about neat ways to bill, insurance agents must deliglut in swapping, stories abot rate igireases.. I arn not privy ta inside information, butI arn sure stock brokers, too, trade yarns about doctors they taiked into buyingà sthe price crested. And politicians, haconfident, trade'taies about taxpayers and votera who turn out to ha grand' pains. (I know; taxpayers don't voters who turn out And politicians, ha, confident, trade tales about taxpayers and votera who turn out to, ha grand pains. .(I-know; taxpayersdon't like to tuixuk of themaeles as soudu-end angina.- But la my ex- perience those who complain loudest about politicians and the Public service usually know the least. And nothing is worse to solve than a general compalint with no speclfic. But we have digressed greatly.) Shop talk. Truck drivers do it. Rock musicians. Hockey players. Dynamite experts. Bomb disposai squada. Teachers. Teachers, you aee,,have-what are known in the tradeas "deadguppystories." Defiution time: Dead Guppy Stories. These are usuaily fabrications presented ta teachers by students to explalin due latenes<or non-existence) of an asaignixuent. The name cornes fronu a forever- namelesa student who explaned clearly once to a teacher why due ternu paper was paat deadiine: "iMyGuppy died." It la not my intention to get into a lying contest at his point. But overmy not inconsiderable years in he profession (teaching, madam, Please.) severai other tales have wended my way. We here won't even but mention due infarnous line every coilege teacher hears: "Are we doing uuytlulng important in clasa today, sir?" But that's a topic for anoduer day. Âsampling of Dead Guppy Stories folow:- ine Wiid Puppy version: "I can't hand in rny ternu essay because I didn't get it typed laat night. I idn't get it typed because when I got home our puppy, - he's six montha old, you know - had chewed the wiring off every electrical cord ln the house. In- cluding the one on my electric typewriter. I couldn't type for fear of being electrocuted."I i-gh-tech version:, "The computer syastem la Or: "Thecomputerateit."1 Day care version: "'My daughter and I feU asleep last night while watching Polka Dot oor."' Alternate day care version: >"My- daughter ate four pickles for breakfast while I ,was in due shower and duen barfed ail over me juat as we were ready to leave for school."l You would think, of course, that teachers, having ta deal widu due reality of such gripping tales, would, themselves do botter, Ha! See, once mired inte this great mydu tilatdeadlines are taken seriously in due business world - which we ail know la a crock- weil, we have to feign taking t seriously ourselves. Thus, listen to due excuses teachers offer for misaing deadines: :1Iknew you'd find a way around it." 'I had a mountain of marklng to catch up on." "A student caught rne just as I was going out due, door." 'rn goin' home to mark where I can get something done." 'I waa just about to cail you."1 'The chequela lan due mail." Guppy stories or not, teaching is ful of mystique of its own. For those who have ever taught - or have known teachers- some pearls, deflnitely not cast hafore swine. "About teaching, I have only one important ding to say; neyer start a lecture at haif past two. Everybody goes to sleep on you." '(Thornas S. Cullen, a Canadian-born doctor, i 1910 head of a department at Johns Hopkins Hospital.) "lTo go into teaching was a matter of sheer necessity. My education.had fitted me for nothing except to pasa it on ta due other people." (Stephen Leacock). "Few femnales possesa that mentoal ability and decision of character which are so essential to the successful teacluer. The franera of the Scluool Law committed a grave error in authorizing fenuales« to teach at al." -(Fronu due official report of the superintendent ofaschoola, Upper Canada, 1859.) WHITBY FREE PRESS. WEDNESDAY. NOVEMBER 2à - 19RA- PAGF n p