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A I aa NR ip, ge =~ r=. I I INE ENE EE ERI EI ER yyy me 4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, September 30, 1986 Editorial Comments At Your Peril it's pretty well common knowledge among Scugog Township residents that the entrance from Highway 7A into the Port Perry Plaza is hazardous and dangerous. Even the owners of the plaza, Harding Gate Developme "ts, recognize this fact. They have asked Scugog Township council to approach the Frovincial Roads department about the possibility of having traffic lights installed at that intersection. Whether the provincial traffic engineers will agree is another question. But it's very obvious that changes of some kind must be made there before there is a serious accident resulting in a death. On numerous occasions, store owners at the plaza have taken it upon themselves to make the intersection a little safer by hiring special duty police officers to halt the trafflic flow on Highway 7A so their customers can exit from the plaza. The Township council has made the request. Let's hope the pro- vincial experts will closely study the problem and come up with some answers that will make it less hazardous to motorists. And if they are going to take a look at the safety of that intersec- tion, maybe they should also study another intersection on Highway 7A in our community where a serious accident is just waiting to take place. That's the corner of Highway 7A and Simcoe Street. There have been accidents there in recent months and it's little wonder. The main problem there is that vehicles travelling east on Highway 7A from the 'beer store corner" come up a hill and are immediately on top of the Simcoe Street intersection. Motorists on Simcoe trying to cross the highway often have very little time because of cars coming over the hill to the west. With the flow of traffic in both directions on Highway 7A seemingly getting heavier every year, this has become a very dangerous intersection. And maybe while the provincial experts are studying ways to make things safer along the Highway 7A through Port Perry, the Durham Region Traffic department might take a look at Lilla Street, especially the stretch of Lilla north of Queen to Durham Road 8. This three-lane stretch is heavily travelled by through traffic at all hours of the day and night, but especially so on Friday and Sun- day evenings with motorists from cottage country north of Lake Scugog. Vehicles coming from the north where the limit is 80 km/hr, just beyond the Port Perry boundary seem to only reduce speeds a few km/hr. when they hit the built-up area of Lilla from Durham Road 8 to Queen Street. What may be needed is a stop light somewhere along this stretch (Perry Street) to slow the traffic down. The rapid-flow of traffic is very hazardous to pedestrians trying to cross Lilla Street. The elderly, who are not as nimble on their feet, are especially in danger as they try to cross Lilla at Perry to walk to the downtown area. Likewise with young children who have to cross Lilla on their way to and from school. ~ These areas in Port Perry at very least deserve a hard look from the traffic experts. Most citizens would have to agree that they are potentially dangerous at this time and with volumes of traffic increas- ing all the time through the community, these situations are not go- ing to get better by themselves. Surely we don't have to wait for a fatality before somebody takes some action. bi] ascii lh Heri RAT "AN | THOUGHT LIFE UNDER THE CARTOONISTS GLARE wAhAs BAD! | the (C CNA Fem | | OY uh indo | C \ S oe) or \ SS 4 J. PETER HVIDSTEN Member of the Publisher Canadian Community Newspaper Association tisi M and Ontario Community Newspaper Association Ad i or Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Co. Ltd . Port Perry. Ontario J.B. McCLELLAND Editor Authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department Ottawa. and tor cash CATHY ROBB payment of postage in cash News & Features Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 A Subscription Rate: In Canada $15.00 per year. Elsewhere $45.00 per year. Single Copy 38° >, is, \ Play ass ©COPYRIGHT -- All layout and composition of advertisements produced by the adver tising department of the Port Perry Star Company Lim ed are protected under copyright and may not be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher Chatterbox by Cathy Olliffe 7 INSURANCE WOES Have you talked about insurance today? If you haven't, you're part of a small minori- ty, At least, that's the way it seems. Everybody I've talked to lately, and I mean everybody, has had something to say about the insurance business, and not much of this conversation has been complimentary. People are ticked off and fed up with paying staggering insurance premiums, especially on their vehicles. And it's no wonder. I know of one case where a gentleman's in- surance was hiked up $700 over last year, when his driving record hasn't changed one bit. No ex- _ tra tickets. No accidents. No satisfactory explana- tion. Just a big fat gouge in his bank account. In another case, a man was so fed up with his insurance increase that he cancelled his policy on the spot. It was only when he began looking around for other companies that he realized no other insurance company would take him. Nobody, that is, except Facility. ~ Anybody who is considered high risk knows all about Facility. It's a group that insures high risk clients when no regular insurance company will. Surprisingly, it is a group most regular in- surance companies belong to, forming a con- glomeration with premiums two or three times the price of regular or "stock" companies. Who is considered high risk? Well, if you've had more than two accidents in three years you're considered high risk, even though they might not be your fault. For example, if someone dings your car while it is parked, and then takes off, your insurance company must pay for the damage if you claim it. And that counts against you as an accident. If you've had more than three tickets in three years, you're considered high risk. Some com- panies won't even look at you if you have three. If you're a young person who has just earned your license and purchased a vehicle, you're con- sidered high risk. In fact, unless someone in your family already has insurance, you might as well resign yourself to the high premiums of the Facili- ty group, because the average stock insurance company isn't going to touch you with a ten foot le if your parents haven't already established iness with them. And then there's the story of the housev ife who lost her husband and couldn't afford to own a car for a while. A few years later, after work- ing and saving, she decided to buy a car. And discovered she was considered high risk. Many insurance companies aren't taking new business period. As a result, it's getting harder and harder for first-time drivers to put their cars on the road. When you consider that insurance is man- datory in Ontario, the situation is ridiculous. So what's the problem, you might well ask. The answer is complicated, wrapped up in lower interest rates, and various financial reasons, but one reason that stands out, at least in my mind, is the number of claims being submitted. In some cases, insurance companies are go- ing bankrupt because they've been handing out more cash than they've been taking in. People are submitting claims for every little thing that goes wrong, and insurance companies are paying through the nose. If you don't believe me, consider this. The next time you have nothing to do, phone a body shop and pretend your car was involved in an ac- cident. Odds are, the body shop rep will ask you if it is an insurance claim. If you say yes, chances are the body shop may quote a higher price. If you're paying for the repairs out of your own pocket, the price will probably be more reasonable. That may not be true of all body shops, but it is of some. For some reason, people don't feel guilty about gouging an insurance company. And yet they wonder why their rates are going up. Another thing. Lawyers, liability insurance and the folks out there who will sue any and every chance they get. Whiplash after being in a car accident? Sue. Get kicked by a cow at the local fair? Sue. Slip on a banana peel in the local supermarket? Sue. A couple hundred grand for pain and suffering. You deserve it. Nail the supermarket, or the fair or the driver to the wall. After all, they have liability insurance, right? And why not take that insurance company for everything it's got. I swear, greed has taken over this country. People are suing each other for stupid reasons, while municipalities, corporations and even ser- vice clubs are afraid to stage public events for fear of getting sued. No wonder insurance premiums are so high. Time was, a million dollars was plenty of in- surance. But more and more, we're reading newspaper accounts of higher and higher set- tlements. A five million dollar settlement isn't as rare as it used to be. Still, it isn't the big settlements that are kill- ing us. It's the penny ante stuff, the thousand here, the thousand there, that is pricing insurance way (Turn to page 6)