The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1927-03-11
Protest Compulsory
Auto Insurance Law
Measure Now Before General
Assembly Would Add Heavy
Burden On Car Owners

That more rigid enforcement of au.
tomobile laws and regulations is the
true remedy for conditions which
cause automobile accidents and that
to force every motorist, whether he
lives in rural communities where
traffic is light and accidents infre-
Quent or in Baltimore City where
traffic is heavy and accidents frequent,
to carry insurance on his car would
make conditions worse, is the conten-
ton Of those who are opposing the
compulsory automobile insurance bills
now pending In the General Assembly.
About 20 per cent of the motorists
of the United States are insured"
says Ernest N. Smith, manager of the
American Automobile Association.
1.-THE percentages range from little or
nothing in remote farming communi
ties to as high as so per cent in cities.
Here we have an interesting situation.
Hundreds of thousands Of motorists,
such as farmers, residing in territory
where the fewest accidents occur,
must pay out millions of dollars in
insurance because of accidents which
take place in territory where the ma
jority Of motorists already carry in
surance."
Motorists in the counties of Mary
land are interested in the pending
compulsory Insurance bills because Of
the additional financial burden they
will have to face IL any one of the
bills is enacted. Bluntly, county mo-
florists will have to pay out hundreds
of thousands Of dollars in insurance
they do not need, simply because OF
the many accidents in Baltimore City,
for any insurance bill passed would
have to apply to all car owners.
Commissioner OF Motor Vehicles.
Baughman is authority for the state
ment that, out of the 100000 motor
vehicles registered in Maryland last
year, so per cent, or 100000 cars, are
owned outside of Baltimore City.
Statistics show that the average
premium per car per year in rural and
suburban territory for public liability
and property damage insurance is $50.
If each of these 100000 cars had to
carry this insurance the total cost
would be approximately the stupen-
dous sum of $4,5Oo,0oO!
That accidents In rural communi-
ties are infrequent Is a fact recog-
nized by insurance companies and re-
flected in their rates, which are con-
siderably lower for cars owned in
rural sections than for city-owned ma
chimes. Under the workings of COM
pulsory auto insurance law, such as
in Massachusetts, which is the only
state with such law, rural territory
rates are very apt to be increased.
In Massachusetts the increase in pub
lie liability rates alone was rs per
cent on cars of the Ford type and 20
per cent on more expensive cars.
The opponents of compulsory auto
mobile insurance point out that simply
because they carry insurance will not
make the criminally careless drivers
a bit more careful. They also con-
tend, with much truth, that COM
pulsory insurance would tend to fill
the courts with disputed accident
cases, thereby increasing the cost Of
maintaining the courts and adding to
the general tax burden.
Those who are opposed to bearing
these additional burdens are advised
to write at once to their senators and
delegates, urging them to vote against
the passage of any compulsory auto
mobile insurance law, for several such
bills are already being considered by
the General Assembly.