Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The History Behind Car Insurance & The Protection It Provides

By Marcus Worthon

Being one of the most popular and most sought after insurances in the world, car insurance is definitely one of the most talked about insurance policies as well. Be it the Us, Europe or Asia, it is mandatory by law, for people driving cars on public roads to own car insurance.

Have you ever wondered where did it all begin? In this write up, we try and explore some of the reasons and incidents which led to the foundation of car insurance policies and laws relating to them. The earliest hints of vehicular insurance com from ancient China, when the west was opening up to this far land.

Later, the concept of car insurance got a whole new twist. Policy makers from all over the world got together and decided that owning a vehicle and driving it on public roads (roads, in most parts of the world are considered to be the property of the public) was a privilege.

Policy makers in the US were strictly bent towards the idea that if you own a vehicle and drive it on public roads, you ought to have car insurance in order to prevent damage to any third parties. It was this thought process that made the ownership of car insurance mandatory in the US and in the rest of the world as well.

While car insurance policies in the US can be traced back to the early 19th century, he first law, making car insurance policy mandatory for people owning cars and driving them on public roads, came into effect in 1927 in Massachusetts. Right after this law was passed, its acceptance was widespread, not only in the US, but also In the rest of the developed and developing world. With the number of cars (and consequently, the number of accidents) on the rise, such laws have been welcomed with open arms all over the world.

While the first law, making car insurance mandatory in 1927 in Massachusetts, real ground work had already been started in this field in the early 19th century. A number of car insurance policies were written and the first policy giving a full liability cover was written in 1895 in England. Soon, three years later, America saw its first such policy, penned down by Dr. Truman in 1898. Policies offering a full liability cover are the most popular and preferred of all car insurance policies because of the fact that they not only insure the vehicle, they also reimburse the vehicle owner for any damage that he might have caused to others.

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