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Stiff new penalties for high-risk drivers
Bad habits could be costly
John Bermingham and Ian Austin, The Province
Published: Friday, November 30, 2007
Bad drivers face thousands of dollars in car-insurance hikes unless they mend their wicked ways behind the wheel.

The Insurance Corp. of B.C. is about to send out warning letters to 120,000 B.C. drivers -- five per cent of all the province's drivers -- who have been chosen for their high-risk driving habits.

"Those people present a bigger risk on the road," ICBC spokesman Doug Henderson said yesterday. "So the feeling was those people should be paying an additional premium."

Starting Jan. 1, ICBC will track all driving offences and apply a "Driver Risk Premium" to motorists convicted of driving-related offences or given roadside suspensions.

High-risk drivers -- who speed, run red lights, drink and drive or drive recklessly -- have twice the crash rate of the other 95 per cent of drivers, says ICBC.

Under the new Driver Risk Premium, a bad driver who racks up another criminal conviction next year could be required to pay an extra insurance premium averaging $500 a year for three years.

The Driver Risk Premium could rise to $24,000 a year for five repeated criminal convictions.

That's in addition to the normal ICBC premiums, not to mention the cost of tickets or fines.

Vancouver nurse Shun-Yee Lo sees the tragic results of car crashes first-hand.

"Of course I agree with that," she said of the ICBC program. "If the high-risk drivers have to pay more, that's a fair deal."

But Vancouver's Sandy Grushcow said ICBC is already giving drivers the shaft.

"People pay huge premiums, and they don't even use their insurance for small accidents because they'll lose their safe-driver discount," she said. "Maybe they should just cut a lot of employees at ICBC so they can cut costs that way."

Artist John Magdie supports the initiative.

"Traffic is getting worse every day -- you can see the stress in people," he said.

"Something's got to happen.

"I try to just drive around with the jazz going to keep me calm -- that works for me."

Management consultant Michele Pankratz said her perspective has changed now that she has a five-year-old son.

"As a parent, safe driving is really important to me," she said. "Is that a deterrent? I guess time will tell."

Sculptor Louise Bunn tries to cycle or ride a scooter to help the environment. She supports the surcharge: "Hit them where it hurts, and that's where it hurts most."

Every year, ICBC says it will scan all three million B.C. drivers' licences for convictions or roadside suspensions, going back three years.

For example, a driver who racks up three speeding tickets over the previous three years faces an extra annual premium of $350 for the next three years.

About a month before the bad driver's birthday, he or she will receive a Driver Risk Premium notice in the mail.

Henderson said ICBC is moving away from the old penalty-points system, under which ICBC did only a one-year scan of a driver's record: "The new program does a three-year scan, which is a better predictor of risk, looking at someone's long-term driving behaviour."

Jim Christie of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries said tying insurance costs to risky behaviour is the industry standard across the country. ICBC is only catching up now, he said, because its traditional monopoly is being challenged by private auto-insurance providers.

Penalizing bad drivers will also increase safety, Christie said.

Ian Tootill, co-founder of the group Safety By Education Not Speed Enforcement, said he's concerned more drivers will be paying Driver Risk Premiums.

"Most people don't think they are a bad driver," he said. "It's always a great idea until they are caught in the web."

Tootill said speed limits should be increased, so only excessive speeders get penalized by ICBC, not moderate speeders.

He said ICBC has "chosen the money way of doing things."

Said Trace Acres of the B.C. Automobile Association: "The intent appears to be sound, that you would penalize the drivers who pose the greatest risk on our roadways."

Acres said he hopes rate hikes for bad drivers will also mean lower premiums for good drivers.

"Increased revenues generated from the high-risk drivers

[should] reward . . . the better drivers on our roads," he said.

In a document filed with the B.C. Utilities Commission, ICBC said it expects to make $60 million a year from the Driver Risk Premium revenues.

wanderwondering
向DAISY学习啊，今年我已经交了两回罚款了，一回在美国超速、一回在Vancouver被警察请进加油站说我走了公交车道；看来今后要多学习。