Insurance rates are higher than they should be in most states partially because of the requirement to assign blame, namely, accident victims cannot collect on insurance monies until they prove that the other party is at fault.  This naturally encourages the greater use of lawyers and jury trials and generally results in a more expensive process. When lawyers get involved, studies have shown that many more claims of nebulous “pain and suffering” injuries (such as sprained necks and backs) are made, increasing litigation costs by a very significant amount.  Many have argued for a no-fault system of insurance in which no fault is assigned and each driver’s insurance company merely compensates their policy holders for any damages sustained.  Under such a system, claims are generally paid quickly but the injured are required to waive their right to sue in order to obtain compensation for mild or moderate “pain and suffering” claims.  Though claimants would still retain their right to sue, the incentives to sue would be severely reduced. People bringing forth false suits should be penalized sufficiently to make them wish that they hadn’t decided to do so.  Eventually, it is hoped, the word will get around that it is much better to resolve these matters during the required arbitration stage and before cases go to trial.

The policy proposals listed below should be sufficient to significantly reduce insurance premiums and pay claims quickly, as well.

1. Costs of a Crime & Punitive Penalties

This would help ensure that whoever is at fault would be required to pay all costs associated with the accident. Accidents are rarely intentional, so it may seem hard to apply this proposal to these cases, but the principle is the same. For intentional accidents (such as occur during fraudulent staging of smashups), the penalties and multiples applied would naturally be far greater.

2. Video Cameras Recording Roadway

With cameras recording the forward view and maybe other views as well, there would be far less confusion as to what happened and who was at fault.

3. Vehicle ‘Black Boxes’

Data recorders like these would enable the virtual recreation of an accident and quickly determine what happened and who was at fault.

4. Widespread Use of Video Cameras In Public

It is not hard to see how the video cameras monitoring streets and highways would not aid in more quickly identifying who the at-fault party was for an accident. So much arguing, testimony hearings and court time could be eliminated by using such video recordings. Naturally, insurance premiums would go down.

5. Victims Get Compensated Immediately

Though this proposal relates to government compensation for victims of crime, the same principle could be used for insurance companies to compensate their ‘victims’. The vast majority of people involved in accidents would have wished that the accident did not occur, including at-fault individuals. That’s why they are called accidents. So everyone should be compensated as quickly as possible, even before the assigning of liability is completed. The insurance companies could then work between themselves to transfer payments and adjust premiums once liability has been assigned.

6. Jury Reform

It should also be easy to understand why having smarter people on juries would result in more accurate decisions and judgments, leading to lower insurance premiums.

7. Informants

Paying informants (like, witnesses) to provide information is better that not paying them and hoping they would volunteer their time and stress to testify practically for free. If it turns out that any informant lied, the penalties would be such that he would have wished he didn’t lie.

8. Mass Transportation System Infrastructure Design

Having a comprehensive mass transportation system would naturally result in more people using it rather than their automobiles. This would lead to fewer automobiles, and fewer people being the primary operators of their transport vehicles. In other words, more people would be riding in professionally driven vehicles such as trains, buses and other mass transit vehicles, thus being safer as a result. Fewer accidents means less cost to policy holders. Actually, it also means less of a need for auto insurance altogether.