Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site aoa.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!bbnccv!bbncca!aoa!mbr From: mbr@aoa.UUCP (Mark Rosenthal) Newsgroups: net.politics,net.auto Subject: Re: Massachusetts seat belt law Message-ID: <375@aoa.UUCP> Date: Thu, 26-Dec-85 12:41:59 EST Article-I.D.: aoa.375 Posted: Thu Dec 26 12:41:59 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 1-Jan-86 04:09:55 EST References: <294@frog.UUCP> <806@brl-tgr.ARPA> Reply-To: mbr@aoa.UUCP (Mark Rosenthal) Distribution: net Organization: Adaptive Optics Assoc., Cambridge, Mass. USA Lines: 36 Xref: linus net.politics:12079 net.auto:7960 In article <806@brl-tgr.ARPA> abc@brl-tgr.ARPA (Brint Cooper (CTAB) ) writes: >Perhaps the mandatory seat belt laws should be amended to state >that anyone hurt in an auto accident and found not to have buckled up be >required to assume the full costs associated with his injuries, >including the cost of police, fire, ambulance, hospital, court, and >rehabilitation! This idea gets suggested now and then. It may be a good idea in principle, but it depends on an impartial administrator to judge whether or not you were buckled up. Do you really think we can trust the insurance companies to be impartial when their money is involved? If so, I think you are rather naive. Think back to the year the insurance companies here in Mass. convinced the state insurance commission to allow them to set their own rates. They claimed that competition would bring rates down. What happened? People were placed in "assigned risk pools" (you know - the rating system whose purpose is to allow the insurance companies to charge you double because you have a bad driving record) based on living in a neighborhood the insurance companies didn't approve of. The average increase that year was so high that the state legislature passed a law rolling back all increases to a maximum of 25% over the previous year (down from 50%-100% increases). And even after the law was passed, the companies dragged their feet for many months before mailing refunds. Now, would you really trust an insurance company to make this determination fairly, when the outcome will determine whether or not they will have to shell out 1000's (or perhaps 10,000's or even 100,000's) of dollars? -- Mark of the Valley of Roses ...!{decvax,linus,ima,ihnp4}!bbncca!aoa!mbr "Oh, dear mother, what a fool I be. Six young fellows come a' courtin' me. Five are blind and the other couldn't see. Oh, dear mother, what a fool I be."