A Novel Proposal to Make our Highways Safer
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The August 31, 2007 edition of the Wallstreet Journal contained an editorial by John Semmens which proposed a radical new approach to highway traffic safety.
Mr. Semmens proposed that the responsibility for vehicle safety inspections and licensing drivers be placed with the insurance industry. His reasoning is that, since the insurance company pays a large portion of damage caused by negligent drivers, that industry would be governed by its own self interest to make highways safer.
According to Mr. Semmens, the insurance companies "would be vigorous in their testing and car safety requirements, letting only qualified individuals venture out into the highways. They would be more likely to ferret out those unqualified to drive, from those whose driving abilities have become compromised with age or habitual substance abuse to those who have been ticketed on more than one occasion for reckless or aggressive driving."
Mr. Semmens argues that insurers would also be more likely to develop methods to allow previously incompetent drivers back on the road after meeting certain criteria.
The flaw in Mr. Semmens' reasoning is that it fails to take into account that the insurance companies' own self interest, upon which he would rely on to make roads safer, would also take driving privileges away from many otherwise good drivers who need a driver's license to earn money to support their families.
Insurance companies already know which drivers they want to insure and which ones they do not want to insure. In fact, in North Carolina, the law forces insurance companies to insure drivers that the insurance companies do not want to insure. If an insurance company does business in North Carolina, the law requires that the insurance company insure their fair share of drivers which they would not otherwise insure. These undesirable drivers are placed into a risk pool and are divided amount insurance companies who are required to insure these drivers. These are drivers who are all licensed to lawfully drive in North Carolina.
If the insurance company were to take over responsibility for licensing drivers, these drivers would never be able to drive and, for many of them, the family income would suffer and welfare roles would be increased.
While Mr. Semmens' idea sounds plausible, in practice, insurance companies have already shown that if they had their way they would only insure the "cream of the crop" of North Carolina drivers who have impeccable records. This would greatly increase the profits of the insurance company at the expense of lawful drivers who need their license to drive in order to support their families.
The editorial did point out some chilling facts about motor vehicle collision, however.
There were more than 39,000 people killed and 1.8million injured in traffic accidents in the United States during 2006. The economic cost of these collisions was approximately 140 billion dollars.
For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Car and Motorcycle Accidents.