ICBC premiums are rising! The corporation is losing billions, we have
to get costs under control! Let’s put out the ICBC dumpster fire by
reducing what we pay out in claims, but assure crash victims that they
will be properly taken care of.
That’s about all you can get into a 30 second sound bite but if there
are a few more available, add the fact that the court actions and legal
fees are compounding the problem.
These thoughts seem to have replaced the complaints that our provincial
government put ICBC in a poor financial position by raiding reserve
funds to balance the provincial budget.
All of this appears to be a bit after the fact to me. Shouldn’t we be
looking at the root of these costs? The average of 960 crashes per day
in 2017 means that about one in ten B.C. drivers played a part in this
issue. If we could stop having collisions, reduced
costs would certainly follow.
This is simple to say, but difficult to execute.
I’m a better than average driver, so the problem does not lie with me,
it’s the other driver you need to deal with. Make them take a road test
every five years to show that they still know how to drive properly.
Ask a driving examiner and you may hear that they think that most
drivers would pass that road test. Drivers would simply drive
responsibly for the test and then go back to their preferred behaviours
afterward.
As a traffic cop, I listened to many violators rationalize their choice
to disobey the rules. For many different reasons their personal
circumstances took precedence over the framework that we’ve established
to try and keep ourselves safe.
Automated enforcement is OK for red light runners, but not for
monitoring speed. Don’t even think about using telematics to look over
my shoulder while I drive to set my insurance rates! “Big brother” has
no place in my vehicle and only limited welcome outside
it.
Vision Zero changes to infrastructure designed to reduce the frequency
of or minimize the effects of crashes that do occur are slowly being
made as budget and planning permit. Promoting the belief that our
highways are not just for personal motor vehicles and
that more lanes don’t make for safer and efficient travel will be
difficult.
We seem to view a certain number of casualties from crashes as “normal.” It isn’t.
Let’s get rid of “me first” attitudes and decide that no collision is an
acceptable risk for using the highway. It’s something that we can do
now (at no cost!) and it will surely affect our insurance rates.
Story URL:
https://www.drivesmartbc.ca/collisions/icbc-dumpster-fire
—
Constable Tim Schewe (Retired)
DriveSmartBC: Where better than average drivers satisfy their curiosity.