The Cost of Accidents

We should learn from the workers' compensation system. Deregulation in that market has been a key factor in bringing down the accident rate, by internalizing to employers the benefit of safe working conditions. Automobile insurance seems to be pretty backwards in comparison. WC insurance costs per hour worked or dollar of payroll, but State Farm doesn't really know how many miles I drive. WC varies with the type of job, and even with time one worker spends on different activities. (A salesman who spends 10 hours a week driving to appointments costs more than a salesman who only spends 5 hours a week driving.) But State Farm doesn't know whether I'm on a relatively safe interstate or a relatively dangerous 2-lane country highway.

Some of the solution is regulatory, some technological.

My belief, based just on observation, is that a small percentage of drivers must be responsible for a disproportionate number of accidents. I would love to see statistics (and they must be out there) about this. My husband, an insurance defense lawyer, guesses that most of the litigants he deals with have had 2 or more previous accidents, but as that is only a sample from what goes to litigation, I don't know how to judge it. The externality cost is probably dependent on miles driven, sure, but what about how aggressively a person drives? And is that possible to measure? I like to believe that I have had no accidents in 17 years of driving due to my cautious ways, but is it more likely that I am just lucky?

First i think that more incentivies should be given by insuracne companies for safer driving techniques. Secondly i think that the drivers education programs has signifcantly failed recently, there are people on the road that has no business driving a vehicle. The last idea i purpose is what about putting an age limit on operating a vehicle, if you are over 80 years old you need to be assisted when driving? I think that the driving situations will only get worse.