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J. .,,,.'., PAGE 20, WH1TBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAy, jANUARy 31, 1990 by JiI Mclntosh The. inventions Til EXHIBIT, in the Harley-David- doramra custom car and hot road son motorcycle display, was just olne showi Toronto over the weekend. attention-grabber at the' Spée- Sctt aurle photo No fult argument&L&s continue By Tirudie Zavadovicu surance companies like te know Groups opposed te no-fault in- what they have te pay.. For surance claim the insurance im- example, under the no-fault plan pairs the rights of victims te sue. the mnsurance company wouîd Insurance comparnies argue cover the cost of fylng in close that' clamants wilI get quick fainily of the injure . return on badly-needed dollars. Mowat says that cost is a Most agree, however, that this variable because it changes with is the last shot for insurance each climant. cempanies and that the next step The argument goos on. The is governinent-run insurance. Advocacy Resource Centre for 1Ithink gernment insurance the Handicapped has slammed is in he ofn gsays Roy Cooper the preosed rnsurance, saying it. of Towne and Country InsurancedsriS ~ ts gis ayo in Witb. Coperhas In those rnjured and that the no- the insurance rndustry for 35 fault benefits are inadequate. years and sees no-fault mnsurance The Ontario Motorist Protection as a positive move for drivev" Plan, the Insurance Bureau of Canada and the Insurance Brok- "II feel it will be passed. Tlhere ers Association cf Ontario have WilI be more direct money goino praised those limits. right. away te the claîmang Mowat gays that there was Benefts ae suposedobe pid $500-million ini legal fees wéitna0re a s. se n b al orauto accidents last year. NDP question it cuts off litigation but MPPerKooohaesi- (on the average) only 34 cents of ted that the. autemotive in- every dollar went to' the iiti- surance companues would receive gan the about $630-million the first year. Underth new plan the maxi- «IIisuflance companies are not mum weekly benefit payment going te be allowed te gain a lot,» willgo te $450 from the present says Mowat. He says there is a maimum cf $140. There is, saiecal committee te ensure that however, a ceiling of $1,500 doesn't happen. «People are run- monthly for long-term care. ming the system down without Noel Mowat, cf Mowat In- knowing whatVs going on. Wts not surance in Whitby, says it seems the ideal thing, but it's not bad like a fair Sstemn and that there either." will be a fair threshhold as, te Durham riding MPP Allan who cam and can't sue. Furlong, who up until this year "There will be borderlines » was on the select committee exa- gays Mowat. «Certainly the pe; - mininr the legislation sees both son who has long-term disabîlity good anld bad in the iI. will be able te sue. "I think it's a good comprom- "I dont think it's perfect but ise,» says Furlong. 'cBad drivers it' the best were g ointgt for are going te contmnue. to be pun- now. There are thingth in- ished!» surance companies defmitely He sacs the insurancecm don't like but are going te have parues will make some profit. te live with.» Fe says that some commente He says that there are many going around are ridiculous. unknown vr lf-*idýî46t4ý.4 disappointed in -the way lawyers have presentéd it. In effeet, it will be a governinent- r adeulated industry run by the private secter. The are going te make a reasonable profit and there will be healthy compei tien. The -insurance commio has the authority te, roll back rates (if profits geýtoee high). Al insurance cernpanies have te pro- vide is audited statements te the gevernment. Furlong says the no-fault plan takes money for litigation eut cf the lawyers' hande and gives, it, net te t he insurance companies, but te the claimants. Furlong saysl the issue cf pay- ment is a complicated one, but is made more complicated because ites being used as a poitical football. Under the pt-oposed Bill, clai- mants would have te draw; frein other disability insurance ipro-. grains (if they, were paying mto any) before they could collect on their aute disability. «Yes, you: would have te exhaust your own personal liabi- lity insurance first,» says Fur- long. «Under, the no-fault disabi- lity insurance concept, (the clai- mont ) is net going te get dou- ble.» Furlenig assures that use of the other disability panwudno exhaust it for later use. Even writh the pros and «cens, he feels confident theBill will paso. "I think there may be seme amendments, but feel the Bill will pass. It is geing back te the house March 19 and (will pro- bably) be passed in June." He says that once the Bill is passed, it would be implemented nnmeciately but would take a yeaEr cf statistics te determine a cutback or increase in irates. Each year, when the new cars roll off the assembly limes, we're presented with a dazzling array Of improvements. and modifications,. designed to make driving safer and make cars easier to, operate. Just in the last few years, we've seen anti-lock brakes, four-wheel .steering, heated windshields and automatically- <dimming rear -view niirrors, just to name a few. New features are so commonplace we offen dont realize they1re, there. But to a motorist of a few decades ago, they would have been considered something out of science-fiction atonies. One of the most important inventions in the automobile's history was. the electric self-starter, which Cadillac introduced in 191?. Stili used today in essentially the saine form by every gasoline-powered car, the self-starter was a device, which turned the heavy flywheal te, start the engine.. Before the self-starter, this job had to, be done by hand, using a' crank at the front of the car. First the controls had te be set on the steering column; then it was purely muscle power. Hopefully the car would, start the first turne, but of course tat didn't always happen! Cranl g a car was also dangerous, since if the engine backfired, thèý heavy iron crank would spin, ýoften resulting in broken hands ýnd arms. Once the car was running, the motorist was on bis way. Fortunately the early cars didn't go very fastand there weren't many of theri on the road, since the didn't haâve brakes. If you had te, stop you put the transmission $hte reverse. When brakes did come on the scene, they. were' mechanical,. requiring, a gçood strong leg and a lot of steppihg distance. They were used on, one set of wheels only, and wNhen four-wheeled brakes appeared on the scene, many of ý the smaller manufàctureýs didn't want, te spend the money to retool for -the new system. Several small autemakers, including Studebaker, '!actualy took out newspaper ads explaining te the public that four-wheel brakes were dangerous in the hopes that they wouldnt;t'catch on. Since cari with four-wheel brakes did :worký better - 'Studebaker's d caims, notwith- standing -- it became the law in many provinces that;'these newer. cars had te, carry warnings about them. Today at automobile flea markets you can find. many lof these cast-iron red triangles, which were inounted on -the back- ifender so, that cars behind would know that this vehicle cudso very sudd.enly. If you were travelling at night, yuwere now faced with another problein: your headlights. They certainly weren't the powerfuil halogen -bulbs. we know todayl. The early cars carried acetylene lamps, fed from a tank which sat on the- running board. They- had te be lit with a match and,-nan motorists .ware irjured when tooý much gas bujît up and ignited. Today's - automakers are working on systems that will actually- infiate ý a 'fiat tire,' without taking it ýoff the rimn. This would' have been- another science-fiction tale, te early. motorists, .who had to deal with tires that were only good for a few hundred miles. As if that wasn't bad- enough, changing a tire meant exactly that: you had te, change the rubber- tire, not; the rim! The name "tire iron" dates back te, when it was used to pry the tire'off the wheel; the fiat end we now use to remove the hubcab was for breaking- the tire bead. Winter brought with it a whole new set of problems. The earliest car heaters consisted of heavy coa.ts. But keeping the passengers warm was secondary to the problemn of keeping the eùigine from freezing. Today's special chemical antifreeze -blends are used year-round, to keep the. engine from freezing in, winter and boiling over in summer. Early moterists had no such goodies. When they reached their destination, they drained the radiater; it had to, be. refilled when it was time. te start up Thge solutions ranged from the sublime te the ridiculous. Salted water, glycerine, alcohol and even mixtures of honey and water were used. Ail of them had their drawbacks until, in 1928, ethlene glycol was introduced under the trade naine Prestone. Like today, accidents werè'also a problem. Quite often, though, minor accidents resulted in serious.injuries or deaths because of the cars themselves. Up until the, 1940s, -the manufacturers used wooden framres, which splintered in collisions. SEE PAGE 23