ROAD ACCIDENTS.
- The address- delivered by Mr.-. J. Dyer Simpson, of the- Royal and Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Companies, before the Insurance Institute of Liverpool last week, was quite a model of a Presidential address inns, Much as it dealt with all those matters of .special interest to members of the Institute but at the same time also dealt ivith matters of what, might be described as of national importance. Among these, special mention must be made Of Mr . Simpson's observations with regard to the coat of road accidents. Without making any claim for even the approximate accuracy of the. figure, Mr. Simpson said that if fatal and non-fatal road accidents in the course of a year were taken as numbering, say, 250,000, and placing the average claim at only £100, an aggregate loss or waste was involved of something like £25,000,000. And whatevef the correct estimate of the loss might be, it was one, Mr. Simpson affirmed, :which could be substantially reduced by the proper treatment of the problem, • and such treatment should certainly not be delayed or denied on the grounda Of expense. That, he 'said, would be no more reasonable than it would be in the -realm of fire insurance to say that buildings must not be made of fire-resisting material because they cost more, or that property could not be protected by Fire Brigades and Salvage Corps or by extinguishing apparatus because of the expense. Mr. Simpson also expressed the opinion that the necessity imposed on motorists to insure .against their Common Law liabilities might be at bottom responsible for the failure of certain small insurance com- panies transacting mainly motor insurance, in that these companies catered for a clientele whoSe desire was not for adequate insurance protection but merely to qualify to operate a car by obtaining the necessary insurance certificate, These are only a few of the practical points touched upon in Mr. Simpson's Presidential address. * * ** •
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