State Representative Suggests One Auto Insurance Rate for All Mass.

Harold W. Canavan, a Revere representative in the state legislature, is circulating an initiative petition to repeal the present zone system of auto insurance rates and substitute a flat rate for the whole of Massachusetts.

Canavan labelled the present system, with rates varying in different localities, "unfair." He said that motorists in Boston and other large cities travel on congested roads and therefore have more accidents. He also believes that many of the accidents in a particular community are often caused by transients rather than residents.

Canavan suggests a flat rate of $28.75, $12.55 less than the present Cambridge rate of $41.80. Other Massachusetts rates range from a high of $56.30 in Revere to a low of $16.20 in other communities.

The little old lady sitting daily on the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street is collecting signatures for Canavan's petition, which already has 13,000 of the 20,000 signatures needed by the December deadline to be put before the state legislature.

Meanwhile, the State Insurance Commission is considering a plan to provide cheaper compulsory insurance rates on cars not driven by persons under 25 and not used for business. The rates on drivers over 25 would be reduced seven and a half per cent, while the rates on business vehicles and cars whose drivers are under 25 would be raised 23 per cent.

R. Ammi Cutter, who outlined this plan, stated, "There is a strikingly bad loss record shown by cars operated by persons under 25. Their losses are twice as high as those of any other group."