Autos, Roads & Car Insurance

While researching the evolution of motorsport and the automobile itself one thing becomes apparent: what a different world we live in from the early days of the 20th Century. When you consider how treacherous the early roads were - craggy and rutted, a quagmire during wet weather - even the most skilled drivers would be challenged. In the United States this was particularly problematic as the still young country did not have the benefit of centuries of infrastructure development found in Europe. In 1904 there were only a few hundred miles of paved roads in the United States and those were in cities. As for skilled drivers, it's easy to understand that these were in short supply when you consider automobiles were still very new and only a handful of wealthy people could afford one.
 
Consider, too, that there were no traffic laws to speak of and automobile drivers in the earliest part of the century were a minority on roads, in many cases seen as a nuisance. These were the days of horse-drawn conveyances and the animals were not at all comfortable sharing the roads with noisy, backfiring "smoke wagons." Imagine the chaos of startled horses and scurrying pets as unskilled drivers of "horseless carriages" weaved their way through crowds of people who had no conception of what it took to slow cars with primitive brakes. All of this took place on poor quality streets devoid of traffic signals and signs.
 
In these early days there was little regulation of who was allowed to sit behind the wheel of the new-fangled contraptions. There were no driver's tests or training schools and licenses when issued at all could be purchased for less than a dollar. While most cars were tended to and driven by professional chauffeurs, it was also not unusual to see children at the controls. People did not fully comprehend the dangers. Check out this ancestry.com Web page that summarizes accidents that took place in 1920's America. Note the brief item about a nine-year-old boy riding on the running board of a car, driven by a family member. The boy's mother was in the car and one can only assume the experiences of her childhood clinging to the side of a wagon informed her opinion that her son was in no grave danger. This proved to be a fatal error in judgment when the car plunged into a ditch crushing the youngster's skull.
 
What's interesting to me is that this particular accident - a reference from the July 8, 1926 Paintsville Herald (Kentucky) - occurred some 40 years after the first automobiles appeared on public roads. People were still learning of their dangers. I suppose they still are as wherever you find people you find lapses in judgment but statistically there has been improvement. In 1930, for example, U.S. deaths per 100,000 people were roughly 25 while in 2011 that number was down to ten.  This is despite the fact that there were about 26.5 million cars on U.S. roads in 1929 versus 254 million in 2012.
 
Given the dangers I also wondered when the first automobile insurance policy was issued. While I did not do exhaustive research on the topic I did find that the state of Ohio is asserting that they were the innovators in this area. This puts the date at 1897 and while others may dispute who got there first the main point is that the concept of insurance began to establish itself fairly early on in the evolution of the automobile. It certainly was not the first example of insurance as that concept had been around for centuries and most historians agree it was finally formalized as a policy recognizable by today's industry standards in 1666 as a result of the Great Fire of London. Nonetheless, though, the automobile is what was new and the idea of insuring it came just a few short years after its birth.
 
Referring back to that deaths per 100,000 figure above (and my original premise in making this post) it's not too difficult to recognize that there are a lot of factors in making the roads safer. Among them are the improved safety features of modern car construction, ranging from the well-established seat belts to air bags and engineered, crushable car construction. The automobile in many ways cocoons us by absorbing the greatest percentage of energy upon impact. Aside from fatalities, though, there are numerous other consequences from an accident such as injuries and property damage. Auto insurance plays a huge role in addressing these harsh realities and with the advent of 21st Century information technology innovative companies are improving the breed - and re-writing that industry's business models.
 
A good example again comes from the United Kingdom with Aviva, an insurance company that offers customers a powerful on-line resource for car insurance. This Web site is a great example of empowering the customer and leveraging the networked world of resources we live in. It creates a sense of community among customers with a ready supply of testimonials those considering their options can weigh. Reflecting the needs of a global community one aspect I found compelling was temporary insurance which could be quite useful for people visiting from other countries. The main point, though, is that unlike the early days of the automobile - or even just a few years ago - the ability of the individual to educate herself or himself about driving skills, car technology and risk mitigation has exploded exponentially.
 
Imagine the earliest automobile drivers peering into a crystal ball and recognizing not just the advances in automobile technology, the ability to learn how to utilize them safely and mitigate risk but also the ready access to information of all kinds and connecting to others of like interests and needs. First Super Speedway celebrates the pioneers of automobiles and especially those who raced them - but I have to wonder: would they even recognize today's world?