Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Legislation

I can think of nothing more impressive by way of introduction to a discussion of Automobile Liability Security law developments than the recent action of the Province of Ontario, Canada. A year or so ago the powers-that-be in Ontario concluded that the time was ripe for some form of legislative remedy for those victims of motor vehicle accidents who fail to receive damages by way of compensation because of the financial irresponsibility of the offending motorist. Acting with the promptness and practical commonsense characteristic of our English brethren, the Ontario Legislative Assembly, on February 8, 1929, created a Royal High Commission, charged with the duty of investigating all aspects of the civic problem presented by the motor vehicle, and particularly the situation created by the negligent, irresponsible motorist. Still characteristically after the English fashion, the Commission was composed, not of a half-dozen or a dozen busy men of diverse interests and with important affairs of their own requiring constant attention, but of one highly distinguished jurist,--the Honorable Mr. Justice Frank E. Hodgkins. Nor did the Legislature fail to provide adequate funds for the conduct of a swift and effective study of the many issues involved.