Nader Tells Auto Clubs to Take No-Fault Poll
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader demanded Friday that the Automobile Club of Southern California and its Northern California affiliate, the California State Automobile Assn., poll their members before making further contributions to the insurance industry’s no-fault initiative campaign.
Nader, a longtime foe of no-fault, which he contends deprives accident victims of full recovery of their damages, charged that in contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to the no-fault effort, the two auto clubs are serving the interests of their insurance business rather than their members. Both clubs are part of the American Automobile Assn.
“Substantively, this initiative is clearly against the interests of their members,” said Nader. “It rewrites the entire insurance code to the advantage of the companies. It’s much more than no-fault.”
Spokesmen for the two auto clubs quickly replied that past membership surveys, taken in 1986 or 1987 before the present no-fault initiative was circulated, showed that a majority of the members responding supported the no-fault concept, in which auto accident victims collect damages from their own insurance companies regardless of who is at fault. No figures on the surveys were provided.
“We have had a poll, about 1986,” said Steve Lenzi of the Automobile Club of Southern California. “So we have some feeling about the membership’s awareness and feeling about no-fault.”
$300,000 Already Spent
Lenzi said the Automobile Club of Southern California has already contributed “in excess of $300,000” to the no-fault effort, designated for petition signature gathering to qualify the initiative instead of advertising it.
Tom Roner, a spokesman for the California State Automobile Assn., said that a survey of members taken last October showed “they were favorable to the pursuit of no-fault.”
Roner said the Northern California auto club contributed $125,000 to the petition signature gathering for no-fault and has already spent $250,000 on its own promotion of the no-fault concept.
Both auto club spokesmen said that massive mail and other efforts are planned to sell their own members, totaling 6.2 million statewide, on voting for no-fault and against other initiatives on the ballot. One of the other initiatives, sponsored by the Voter Revolt to Cut Insurance Rates, is endorsed by Nader.
Nader said he wants a new, comprehensive poll and “not with leading questions.”
“Procedurally, they’re not following a proper path,” he said. “In something this controversial, they should get their membership position before acting.”
Long-Time Position
Lenzi and Roner said the auto clubs have supported no-fault since the early 1970s.
Meanwhile, in another development in the fight over five proposed auto insurance initiatives on the November ballot, it was learned that KRON-TV in San Francisco and KCBQ-FM radio in San Diego have agreed to insurance industry requests to identify the California Trial Lawyers Assn. as a sponsor of commercials attacking the no-fault initiative.
Industry campaigners had written 61 stations last week contending it was unfair to list a consumers coalition as the sponsor of the $1.3-million advertising campaign when the trial lawyers were funding most of it.
