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Show Safety Commissioner Reminds Public Of Responsibility with New Law Public Safety Comissioner Joseph Jos-eph W. Dudler remind Utah motorists mot-orists today that when the state's new Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Respon-sibility Law becomes effective on September 1, they must be prepared pre-pared to pay for the damage they cause in accidents, up to $11,000 have all of their motoring privileges priv-ileges suspended until they do. f , 1 " - i W i Citing last year's high accident acci-dent record as an example, Commissioner Com-missioner Dudler said the legislature legisla-ture was not only deeply disturbed about the amount of careless driving driv-ing on Utah's highways, but also by the fact that "a great many people irresponsibly use every trick and device to avoid even paying for the expense they have caused the victims of accidents." The new law, therefore, has two primary purposes, the commissioner commission-er said, as follows: "1. To require motor vehicle owners and operators who are involved in-volved in acidents to pay for the damage they cause or get off the road, as either owner or operator, until they do. "2. To facilitate the state's ability ab-ility to put habitual accident causers caus-ers off the road permanently as either owner or operator." Commissioner Dudler pointedly declared that the new Safety Responsibility Re-sponsibility Law is not a compulsory compul-sory insurance act, saying: "You TALL STORY . . . "Queen of Height," Betty Clavlnic, 6', looks up to Don Koehler, 8'2", at Tall Clubs convention in Chicago. as a motor vehicle owner or operator, op-erator, are not compelled under any condition or circumstance to carry insurance. If you become subject to the law's security section, sec-tion, you have a number of choices as to how you comply with it. So if anyone tries to tell you this is a compulsory insurance law, you tell them that they don't know what they're talking about." Speaking to the entire state in a radio broadcast, Comissioner Dudler gave the first official ex-planation ex-planation of how the new law operates, which may be briefly summarized as follows: Beginning September 1, the driver of every car that is involved invol-ved in a traffic accident resulting result-ing in death or injury, or property prop-erty damage in excess of $25 must file a written report with the Department of Public Safety Safe-ty within 5 days. The security requirements do not apply, how ever, unless the acicdent caused death or injury, or property damage dam-age in excess of $100. In that event, an owner or operator who carried the proper kind of insurance insur-ance at the time, of the accident is not further affected by the Safety Safe-ty Responsibility Law because it accepts such insurance as proof of ability to meet damage claims up to $11,000. An uninsured driver has a total of 60 days in which to do any one of the following things: obtain a release from liability signed by all other persons involved; ob- 1 tain a court decree that he is not liable, execute a written agree- ! ment to pay all damage claims up to $11,000, or prove that his car was lawfully parked or being driven without his permission at ' the time of the accident. If an uninsured un-insured driver is unable to do one ! of these things within 20 days after the accident, the Department ( of Public Safety will- call upon . him to deposit collateral or bond ( in an amount sufficient to cover damages for which he may be ! held liable. This may be as little as $101 or as much as $11,000. Should the driver be unable to cover his possible liability with security or bond within the remaining re-maining 40 days, the department $ must suspend both his operator's .. license and registration plates for ( all cars owned by him. Suspension ) will remain in effect until the law is complied with, or one year has elapsed without suit for dam- $ ages being filed. A plea of innocence in-nocence of blame cannot be ac- I cepted, unless it is in the form , of a release by the other parties or a final court decision. The Department De-partment of Public Safety has no i jurisdiction whatever in the matter mat-ter of who was at fault in the I accident. ' 6 |
