Oct 27, 2014

History of car insurance

AS you probably know the widespread use of the automobile in the cities began only after the First World War. Cars were comparatively fast and dangerous by that time, but there was still no obligatory form of car insurance anywhere in the world. This meant that damaged cars and injured victims often didn’t get any compensation in an accident, and drivers often had significant costs because of the damage to their cars and health.

A required car insurance system was first introduced in the Great Britain with the Road Traffic Act 1930. This document said that all vehicle owners and drivers had to be insured for their responsibility for damage or death to third parties while their vehicle was being used on a public road. Germany passed similar legislation in 1939.

The idea of an obligatory insurance came to USA much more earlier than in UK though in 1925 law according the compulsory insurance for all types of vehicles was only accepted in Massachusetts . Gradually it spread to all of America. 

First talks about the car insurance in Russia were already in 1924, but for the ordinary citizens of that time the automobile was a luxury, rather than a means of transportation. The talks related auto insurance was restarted again only in 1960s, and in 1991 the car insurance became obligatory.