ABSTRACT
It has long been recognised that innocent victims of road traffic accidents should be compensated; in practical terms, judgments against the offending driver could rarely be satisfied by that person, particularly given the medical advances which have led to many more people surviving accidents but facing a lifetime of needing medical treatment and care. Initially, this problem was dealt with by the government introducing compulsory insurance for all drivers. However, it became increasingly obvious that, due to non-compliance with these provisions, an anomaly was created whereby an innocent victim could obtain no compensation at all because they had the misfortune of having been injured by a penniless uninsured or untraced driver. By an agreement between the insurance companies and the government in 1945, provision was made for the establishment of a fund to satisfy judgments in certain cases; in 1946, the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) was born. Since that time, there have been various agreements dealing with untraced and uninsured drivers.
