The History Behind Car Insurance & The Protection It Provides
June 15, 2009 by Marcus Worthon
Filed under Auto Insurance
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.
British traders had established a number of trade colonies in coastal Chinese regions and a lot of cargo was transferred on ships, to and from this coast into the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans. At times, these ships went berserk and lost track and some were even looted. It was after these incidents that they traders and investors of that era brought forward the idea of marine insurance, thus giving birth to an all new class of insurance policies.
Car insurance and the concept of vehicular insurance as such as been modified time and again since then. Policy makers from all over the world have had numerous meetings, focusing on the clauses in various car insurance policies. IN a span of more than 2 centuries, car insurance policies have come a long way, and continue to do so, even as you read this write up.
Policy makers from all over the world (especially those from the US) were bent on the fact that owning a vehicle and driving it on public property (roads are, by law, property of the public) is not a right, but a luxury and therefore, it became all the more important for car owners to get their vehicles insured. Car insurance was also deemed elementary to safeguard the interests of third parties who might get incur losses during an accident on the road.
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.
