Court Opinion

ID: 9548125
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:57:55.048107+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:18:29.431172
License: Public Domain

ZIMMERMAN, Justice
(concurring):
I join with the majority in holding that the Utah Transit Authority, a qualified self-insurer, is under no obligation to provide its passengers with uninsured motorist coverage. I write separately, however, because of the importance of highlighting the inconsistency between the policy underlying our mandatory uninsured motorist legislation and the treatment we are compelled to afford common carriers by the language of the present statute.
Appellant convincingly argues that the policies expressed in the Utah Automobile No-Fault Insurance Act, U.C.A., 1953, § 31-41-1, et seq. (1974), and the Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Act, U.C.A., 1953, § 41-12-1, et seq. (1981), should apply equally to all operators of motor vehicles, whether self-insured or covered by policies of insurance, and that the statutes should be interpreted to require self-insured common carriers to carry uninsured motorist coverage. Specifically, appellant contends that the Safety Responsibility Act requires motor vehicle owners to provide protection for themselves and their passengers against personal injuries suffered at the hands of uninsured motorists who are at fault. People who ride on Utah Transit Authority buses or on other common carriers should be equally well protected. Indeed, the plight of passengers on a common carrier presents a particularly compelling circumstance for requiring compulsory uninsured motorist coverage. In the present case, the injured passenger was an insured car owner, and the bulk of his damages was paid by his own automobile insurer. Absent that coverage, he would have gone uncompensated. However, many adults who ride buses do so precisely because they do not own cars. In addition, children compose a significant part of the population serviced by common carriers. Both of these groups are far less likely than the general population of car owners to have uninsured motorist insurance and run a much higher risk of being left without remedy if the buses in which they are riding are involved in injury-producing accidents with uninsured motorists.
Appellant’s argumént certainly has merit as a policy matter. The language of our current law, however, does not require self-insured common carriers to provide uninsured motorist protection for their passengers. This omission in the Safety Responsibility Act may simply reflect a legislative *1214oversight; however, the statute as written is the statute we must construe. If the current law does not accurately reflect the intent of its makers, changes such as those supported by appellant should be addressed to the legislature.
DURHAM, J., concurs in the concurring opinion of ZIMMERMAN, J.