Automobile Liability Insurance

Report Outline
State Efforts to Protect Traffic Victims
Controversy on Merits of Forced Insurance
Rising Costs of Auto Liability Insurance
Special Focus

Rejection of compulsory automobile insurance by the New York legislature, after intense political maneuvering in the closing hours of its 1954 session, seems likely to make the question of financial protection for sufferers in traffic accidents a leading issue in this year's election campaign in the country's most populous state.

A compulsory insurance bill, strongly urged by Gov. Dewey, met final defeat in the Senate on the night of Mar. 20, 26 to 19, after it had been passed by the Assembly, Mar. 16, 91 to 54. In a last appeal for the legislation shortly before the Senate vote was taken, Gov. Dewey said:

One hundred human lives will be lost on the highways of this state in the next 12 months in accidents involving uninsured drivers. Thousands more will suffer injury, pain, heavy medical expenses and property damage. … Insurance will not prevent the accidents but the broken homes, the widows, and the orphaned children can at least have a chance in life if insurance is carried. I respectfully urge that the use of the great highways of this state should not be available to the irresponsible minority who create such havoc in the lives of so many.