Other Casualty Insurance Rate and Rule Changes.

Other Casualty Insurance Rate and Rule Changes.
A noticeable downward trend was evidenced in 1949 in premium charges for workmen's compensation insurance. This reflected the general stability of industrial employment and pay rolls, despite some increase in unemployment. Another factor was the favorable industrial accident experience. In New York State, for example, the average reduction in the manual rate level was 4.7 per cent.
Some improvement was also shown in automobile-liability, bodily-injury and property-damage insurance, and although this did not result in general rate reductions in 1949, a trend in that direction was evidenced by the lower rates made effective by independent, nonaffiliated companies, in certain territories where favorable loss experience justified the move.
At the same time, it was necessary in 1949 to revise the method of classifying and rating private passenger automobiles so as to reflect higher premium rates for drivers under 25 years of age — particularly teen-age drivers. This step was taken only after a careful analysis of accidents caused by the teen-agers, which study revealed that licensed operators under the age of 25 were involved in far more than their share of fatal and nonfatal accidents.
Concerned over the seriousness of this problem and the pressing need for solving it, the private insurance companies joined with state motor-vehicle departments and safety organizations in a nation-wide program of accident-prevention education in which the high schools were playing a big role. Consensus of opinion was that improvement in the situation will not be made until the youthful operators become fully cognizant of their obligations to others on the highways, and as the result of the combined efforts of parents, teachers, state authorities and safety organizations, they are imbued with the desire to exercise care, common sense, and reasonable consideration for others.