Blog Archives - Page 25 of 115 - Care For Crash Victims

Rating Auto Insurance Companies

November, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports rates auto insurance companies and found USAA, Amica, and NJM had the highest Reader Scores. See http://www.consumerreports.org/products/car-insurance/ratings-overview/

NY Times

Now the NY Times published an article on auto insurance that gives useful information to consumers citing work created by a crash victim. The same three auto companies were found to be highly rated.

“There’s a conflict here between shareholders and policyholders,” Mr. Karr said. “We’re showing how companies have run their businesses, and that’s not always in the interest of the policyholder.”

The ValChoice study divided the auto insurance market into three types of companies. The largest group — 48.3 percent — are publicly traded corporations like Allstate, Geico (which is part of Warren E. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate) and Progressive.

Among mutual companies, there are two different business models. Some companies return earnings to their policyholders in the form of dividends, while others do not pay dividends but keep the earnings at the company.

Mutual companies that do not consistently pay dividends to auto policyholders make up 42.3 percent of the market; Liberty Mutual is one of them.

Those that do pay dividends are the smallest subset of the market, with approximately 8 percent, ValChoice said. Also sometimes known as reciprocal insurance exchanges, they include USAA, the Automobile Club of Southern California, Amica Mutual and NJM Insurance….

When shopping for insurance, consumers often focus solely on price. Figuring out the differences in claims payment histories at companies is much harder to do because the data is not readily available and requires significant digging to unearth. Analyzing the data, Mr. Karr said, can give consumers a better idea of the value they are receiving for the insurance premiums they pay.

“The paid loss ratio is such a direct measure of the actual value of an insurance policy,” said Mr. Karr. “If I’m paying money for insurance, it tells me how much is likely to come back to me if I have an accident.”

In essence, Mr. Karr said, consumers who buy from companies whose claims payments are lower are paying for lesser coverage. That value loss can add up to billions of dollars.

Charles M. Chamness, chief executive of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, agreed. “Mutuals exist to serve policyholders and allow management to focus on service and longtime financial security,” he said.

Mr. Karr got the idea to start ValChoice after he was hit by a car and had trouble getting his medical bills paid by insurers.

“When I came away from it, I thought there was a lot people who needed to know about the operating characteristics of these companies,” Mr. Karr said. “People are mandated by law to buy insurance; they should be able to get quality information about what it is they are buying.” See

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/business/the-kind-of-car-insurer-that-gives-consumers-the-best-value.html?emc=eta1

ValChoice

You can get a free report on your insurance at ValChoice. See https://www.valchoice.com/

Lou Lombardo

Seat Back Failure Tragedies – Safety Delayed for Decades

November, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

An excellent article in Forbes shows how auto companies have stalled government safety actions for decades – especially during both the Bush and Obama administrations – after the dangers of seat-back failures were made clear.

One illuminating factor in this reporting is that it goes beyond statistics of the deaths, but also addresses the suffering of tragic injuries. “Thomas Comella and Victoria Thomas have suffered so much already it would be best for them not to know that three legislators are now telling federal regulators that the seat backs in American vehicles are too weak and can easily collapse in rear-impact crashes.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Rep. Diana Degette of Colorado say the failure of seat backs can cause the driver or front-seat passenger to be flung into the back seat, suffering serious injuries or killing a child seated back there.

The Senators say the federal safety standard – adopted in 1972 – must be upgraded.

Comella and Thomas have known that for almost two decades.

It was how their worlds ended.

Comella, 50, was driving a minivan outside of Cleveland in 1999 when traffic slowed. His vehicle was hit from behind. He remembers the impact being slight, similar to getting bumped by one of those Dodgem bumper cars at an amusement park.

But his seat back broke. The seat belt no longer held him because seat belts are designed to keep occupants from being thrown forward. When he hit the back seat he suffered a spinal injury that left him blind and paralyzed except for the very limited use of his arms.”

Thomas was 19 in 1997 when her car slid backwards into a pole, striking with a force estimated at about 11 miles per hour. The seat back broke. She suffered a spinal injury that paralyzed her legs.

I talked to Comella and Thomas and wrote about seat-back failures 15 years ago when I was covering automotive safety for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland. I’ll post the full story below; but the short version is that way back then seat-back failure was a well-known issue and safety researchers said there were solutions.” See http://www.forbes.com/sites/jensen/2016/11/29/seat-back-collapse-15-years-later-feds-still-fail-to-address-a-deadly-problem/#7f0e4026585b

For more on seat-back failures see https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog/blog-deadlyseatbacks/

Lou

Injury + Inequality + Injustice = Tragedies Past, Present, and Future

October, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

An article published by the Washington Post, on the front page Oct. 26, 2016, provides insights into the legal “system” as it currently values awards for injured people’s lives differently based on race, gender, and age. And then secrecy in settlements is used to minimize compensation, costs, deterrence, and accountability.“In one case, when a 6-year-old girl and a male fetus were killed in the same car crash, the settlement for the fetus was calculated to be up to 84 percent higher than the girl’s, according to court records.”…

The debate over this use of demographic averages pits two tenets of the American justice system – fairness and accuracy – against each other.

Martha Chamallas, a law professor at Ohio State, called the practice reminiscent of “something Ruth Bader Ginsburg and civil rights advocates [fought] in the 1960s.” Jennifer Wriggins, a law professor at the University of Maine, said it “reinforces past discrimination and pushes it out into the future and endorses it.”

Defenders say it is the most accurate way to make calculations about the losses people incur when they are injured. “If there’s a difference in society, it is what it is. It’s a difference, and the economist’s job is to figure out what would have happened,” said James Woods, a forensic economist in Houston…

Law professors who study the practice in the United States say it deserves a fresh look, given America’s increasing awareness of the role race plays in the justice system – as well as the progress women have made in closing other economic disparities….Although G.M.M.’s case took place in open court, 95 percent of personal injury cases are settled behind closed doors, according to Lawrence Spizman, the president of the National Association of Forensic Economics. These settlements – which largely make up the $35 billion personal-injury industry, according to IBIS World – are almost always attached to confidentiality agreements preventing the victims from discussing the terms reached…. In a 2009 survey by the National Association of Forensic Economics, 44 percent said they considered race and 92 percent said they considered gender when projecting the annual wage for an injured child. Race and gender also come into play in many other calculations as well.” See https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/wonk/settlements/

Thanks to the Post and author Kim Soffen for this revealing examination of how our legal “system” fails victims.

As for why lawyers do not use the DOT value of a statistical life of $9 million, I leave it to readers to judge.

Feinberg did not use $9 million in the GM ignition scandal. As I wrote: “First, the Feinberg team, in devising their compensation plan, did not consider the DOT guidance on the higher value of a statistical life of $9.1 million. Although Mr. Feinberg did ask for that information to be submitted for their consideration. So yesterday I submitted the attached DOT Policy Guidance document.” See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-feinberg-comp.php

Lou Lombardo

Tribute to Clarence Ditlow From Senator Markey

October, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

I have known Clarence Ditlow for 44 years. His life of hard work for the safety of all Americans has earned him the following tribute from Senator Markey. His engineering and legal research and safety advocacy based on long hour days – year after year – has earned him the appreciation of all Americans. His work has protected us all from harm.

“Congressional Record Thursday, September 29, 2016 TRIBUTE TO CLARENCE M. DITLOW III Mr. MARKEY. Madam President, today I wish to recognize and thank Mr. Clarence M. Ditlow III for his commitment to protecting the American people. Through a lifetime of work improving automotive and safety laws, Mr. Ditlow has helped save thousands of lives and prevented many more injuries than would otherwise have occurred. A tireless champion for consumers, his work has resulted in better government oversight of automakers, the installation of key safety features, and the exposure of safety defects in millions of cars, SUVs, and other trucks. A 1965 chemical engineering graduate of Lehigh University, Mr. Ditlow pivoted to the legal profession following the completion of a JD from Georgetown University in 1970 and an LLM from Harvard Law School in 1971. Since then, he has been instrumental in improving auto safety, reliability, and efficiency as executive director of the Center for Auto Safety. Mr. Ditlow’s discovery of numerous automotive defects, combined with his persistent pressure on safety agencies and automakers alike, led to the removal of many unsafe vehicles from the road. His direct efforts led to the automotive recalls of 6.7 million Chevrolets with defective engine mounts, 15 million Firestone 500 tires, 1.5 million Ford Pintos and 2 million Jeeps with exploding gas tanks, 3 million Evenflo child seats with defective latches, 7 million Toyotas because of sudden acceleration defects, 2 million GM vehicles with defective ignition switches, and over 30 million Takata airbag inflators. He also led consumer efforts to get ‘‘lemon laws’’ passed in all 50 States. I offer my sincere appreciation to Mr. Clarence M. Ditlow III and the Center for Automotive Safety for indefatigable dedication to auto safety and vigilance in uncovering automotive safety threats. Clarence demonstrates the impact a devoted industry watchdog can have on informing the public and saving lives. I am grateful for his years of collaboration with and assistance to Members of Congress, Federal and State safety agencies, and a myriad of other stakeholders, to improve automotive and public safety.”

See Nader ‘s Introduction of Clarence and Clarence’s presentation at a recent Conference to learn how we all have been protected.Watch it athttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiYi2zjEp5c Time starts at5:04:45 to 5:23:10

Lou Lombardo

Trust Your Government To Do The Right Thing?

October, 2016

Dear Care For Crash Victims Community Members:

The Problem Nader has said: “This country has far more problems than it deserves and far more solutions than it applies.”

The U.S.A. continues to face vehicle violence problems resulting in:

* 100 deaths per day – and rising

* 400 serious injuries per day

* Losses valued by DOT at about $2 Billion per day

The U.S. has more safety technology available than ever before in history.

And yet the Obama Administration has failed for nearly 8 years – and nearly 250,000 deaths due to vehicle violence – to set a national Vision Zero Goal. For example, Volvo has set such a goal for zero deaths in or by a new Volvo by the year 2020. Why?

Where is the hope and change for the better, that President Obama promised us?

Happy People

My recent article on the DOT NHTSA Revolving Door brought me the attached photo of DOT NHTSA and Auto Company Executives. Lots of smiles as the Obama Administration comes to a close.

Some in the media have noted the Revolving Door and coziness of regulators and the “regulated”. Seehttp://www.fairwarning.org/2016/06/self-driving-cars/

But not enough people know about the specific problems of vehicle violence and how government has failed to protect them.

Unhappy People

What percentage of the American people think that they can trust their government to do the right thing?

The Pew Poll reports: The public’s trust in the federal government continues to be at historically low levels. Only 19% of Americans today say they can trust the government in Washington to do what is right “just about always” (3%) or “most of the time” (16%). See http://www.people-press.org/2015/11/23/1-trust-in-government-1958-2015/

Reminds me of the lyrics “The country’s in the very best of hands” See http://www.allmusicals.com/lyrics/lilabner/thecountrysintheverybestofhands.htm

Lou Lombardo

Marianne Karth Participates in Nader Conference On Tort Law & Breaking Through Power

October, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

Marianne Karth, mother who lost two daughters in a crash, writes an eloquent summary of what she learned at this Conference.

Marianne has a dream that all Americans can be spared her family tragedy.“Here’s to the realization of my dream of a nationwide network of mobilized traffic safety community advocacy groups to educate and empower citizens to take back their right to a day in court as one more strategy to help us realize the vision of moving toward zero preventable deaths and serious injuries from vehicle violence.”

See http://annaleahmary.com/2016/10/ralph-nader-conference-highlights-tort-law-benefits-tort-reforms-assault-on-right-to-day-in-court/

Marianne’s dream should become the dream of all Americans – before tragedy strikes their families.

Motor vehicle violence in the U.S.A. currently results in:

* 100 deaths per day

* 400 serious injuries per day i.e. brain, spinal cord, burns, amputations, etc.

* $2 Billion in losses per day in the U.S.A. today.

Before this clear and present danger happens to you and yours, adopt her dream and make it yours.

The Conference info and some video is available athttps://www.breakingthroughpower.org/

Lou Lombardo

Center for Auto Safety Comments on VW Diesel Scandal Settlement

October, 2016

Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:

“CAS Staff Attorney Michael Brooks:

“It is great news that VW diesel owners can now be reimbursed, and that Volkswagen must begin to repair the environmental damage their emissions deception caused. However, automakers will not change their illegal behavior unless the government pursues significant criminal penalties against executives who take or condone such actions. We look forward to news of federal criminal charges against the VW executives who participated in this fraud on the American public.”

Safe Climate Campaign Director Dan Becker:

“The government did a good job preventing further harm from VW’s diesel fraud. Most heavily polluting diesels will be removed from the road and cannot be resold unless fixed. Other automakers must learn from this scandal that they dare not disable pollution controls, lie to the government or fleece consumers. Those lessons will be reinforced when the government brings criminal charges against VW officals who perpetrated this fraud.”” See

http://www.autosafety.org/cas-statement-on-volkswagen-15-billion-emissions-settlement/