Teen Drivers: More Passengers = More Risk
An excerpt from a good article on risky behavior and graduated drivers licenses.
The first study researched how sensation seeking or risk taking, risk perception and parental monitoring and rule setting affected a teen’s likelihood of risky driving and driving with multiple peer passengers. The researchers surveyed 198 teens aged 15 to 17 in two states with graduated driver license laws. They found that higher sensation seeking, lower risk perception and less parental monitoring predicted teens’ risky driving, and having multiple peer passengers increased that risk.
“The good news is that most of the teens in the study reported being aware of the risks of driving dangerously,” said lead author Jessica Mirman, Ph.D.
The second study analyzed a nationally representative sample of 677 drivers aged 16 to 18 who were involved in serious crashes. Findings from on-scene crash investigations revealed that both male and female teen drivers were more susceptible to distractions with passengers in the car.
In addition, boys with multiple passengers were more likely to drive aggressively or perform illegal maneuvers in the moments before a crash when they had passengers than they were when driving alone.
“Distraction from peer passengers appears to play a prominent role for both male and female drivers,” said Allison E. Curry, Ph.D., MPH, director of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Core at the Center and lead author on this study. “One in five females and one in four males who were driving with friends were distracted by something inside the vehicle just before they crashed.”
Passengers affected boys and girls in different ways. Boys were more prone to crash due to speeding or reckless driving while girls were more apt to crash because of distractions such as looking at their friends, eating, texting or using their cell phones, said Jeffrey Weiss, M.D., pediatric hospitalist at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, and a spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics on teen driving issues.
Click the link to go to the original report at the Center for Advancing Health site and view the entire article
Homeowners Insurance Rising in Connecticut
Homeowners insurance seems to be on the rise in Connecticut.
Recent information is indicating that insurers are looking at rate increases in 2012. Many of the insurers in Connecticut have already filed higher rates with the state of Connecticut Insurance Department and received approvals for those increases. Some of the insurers have received approvals that may go as high as 15%.
The good news is that Connecticut rates are not rising as much as in some other states.
The various insurers that we are an agent for have made us aware that we should see some increases as high as 6% with a few policies exceeding that. Some insurers we are an agent for expect to have no increase.
If your insurance is going up significantly, is being renewed with a coastal or windstorm deductible or otherwise might need to be reviewed, please contact us.
Here’s an article illustrating and supporting the higher rates we’re witnessing:
http://www.programbusiness.com/News/Homeowners-Rates-to-Increase-in-11-States
CT Ranks Last in Property Tax
CT now ranks dead last in property taxes. In 5 other measured areas CT ranks in the lower half in all but one are when compared to other states, and in the one area it isn’t in the lower half it’s ranked 25th. It has not improved its ranking in any area of taxation when compared with its 2011 rankings.
In overall business tax climate CT ranks 40th overall, 11th worst, while New Jersey and New York have the worst tax climates in the nation for business, according to a new report by the Tax Foundation,a Washington, D.C.-based research firm.
Two other Northeastern states, Vermont and Rhode Island, also scored poorly. Vermont was ranked as fourth-worst state and Rhode Island was fifth-worst.
The Tax Foundation’s “State Business Tax Climate Index” compares the 50 states in five areas of taxation that impact business: corporate taxes; individual income taxes; sales taxes; unemployment insurance taxes; and taxes on property, including residential and commercial property.
Read the entire report at the Tax Foundation’s website.
Top Insurance Scams of 2011
Fake Hasidic Jews, Cow in a Coffin, More in Top Insurance Scams of 2011
A cash-strapped businessman torches his home, then massacres five people to keep witnesses from testifying. A cop shoots himself to steal workers’ comp money. Two scammers stuff a coffin with a mannequin and cow parts to invent a dead person for a million-dollar life-insurance payout.
These are among the extreme schemers elected to the Insurance Fraud Hall of Shame sponsored by the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud.
The Hall of Shame annually “dishonors” the year’s most brazen, vicious or klutzy convicted insurance criminals as a way to brand insurance fraud as a socially offensive act by detailing true-life cases and the damage they cause.
Click here to go to the source article and view a slideshow.
Cruise Ship Sinking and Insurance
Cruise Ship Sinking and Insurance. Liability, Property, and Pollution.
There’s a lot of news about the recent cruise ship sinking. In the insurance industry, we get some news from a perspective of property damage, liability for injury and death, liability for damage to property of others, risk of pollution, etc
Here are some we thought might interest you, with links, and why:
“Sunken Carnival Cruise Ship Creates Waves of Insured Losses” – and a $40 million deductible!
“Cruise Ship Disaster Off Italian Coast May Cost Insurers 400 Million Euros” – that’s $513 million (currently) and spread over a number of insurers.
“Environmental Fears Mount in Cruise Wreck” – no mention if there is a separate, additional pollution liability coverage in place. Also mentions indemnification of 10,000 euros per passenger, but no mention if that is an insured expense.
Posted inInternational News, of Interest | 
carnival, carnival cruise ship, cruise ship sinking, environmental fears, indemnification, Insurance, insurance industry, insurance liability, insured losses, italian coast, pollution liability coverage, property damage liability, risk, ship disaster, wavesOnline, Amazon-Owned Business Hacked. Get Cyber Liablility Insurance for Your Business!
Hackers Hit Online Shoe Seller Zappos
Online shoe seller Zappos.com says a hacker may have accessed the personal information of up to 24 million customers.
The company, which is owned by Amazon.com Inc., says customers’ credit card and payment information was not stolen. But names, phone numbers, email addresses, billing and shipping addresses, the last four digits from credit cards and more may have been accessed in the attack.
Zappos Chief Executive Tony Hsieh alerted employees and customers of the cyber-attack in an email on Sunday that is posted on the company’s website.
Zappos is contacting customers by email and urging them to change their passwords.
Zappos said the hacker gained access to its internal network and systems through one of the company’s servers in Kentucky. Zappos is based in Las Vegas.
Posted inNews - National, of Interest | Business, credit cards, Cyber, cyber attack, email addresses, Insurance, zapposRidiculous Lawsuits
Ridiculous lawsuits can be outrageous and humorous, but legal fees and awards are a major contributor to insurance costs.
The top ten Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2011 are:
- Kidnapper sues victims for not helping him evade the police
- Man illegally brings gun into bar, gets injured in a fight, then sues bar for not searching him for a weapon
- Young adults sue mother for sending cards without gifts and playing favorites
- Woman disagrees with store over 80¢ refund, sues for $5 million
- Mom files suit against exclusive preschool over child’s college prospects
- Man suing for age discrimination says judge in his case is too old
- Obese man sues burger joint over tight squeeze in booths
- Woman sues over movie trailer; says not enough driving in ‘Drive’
- Passenger’s lawsuit says cruise ship went too fast and swayed from side to side
- Mother sues Chuck E. Cheese – says games encourage gambling in children
Complete poll results and links to the full news stories from which the lawsuits were drawn can be found here.
Malloy backs red-light cameras
HARTFORD — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Tuesday offered qualified support for a renewed legislative effort to catch and penalize overeager motorists who run red lights.
Reacting to plans announced Monday by Senate Majority Leader Martin M. Looney to legalize so-called red-light cameras, Malloy suggested that encouraging driver safety should be the overall goal, not reaping more revenue or saddling drivers with negative points toward higher insurance rates and the possible loss of their licenses.
“I’ve always supported electronic means,” Malloy told reporters in the Capitol. “This is not 100 years ago. There are different technologies.”
While the state office of the American Civil Liberties Union helped defeat the proposal last year amid charges that cameras intrude on civil rights, Malloy told reporters that he has favored such tactics to cut down on intersection crashes.
“Maybe a ticket issued that way doesn’t carry points, or it carries a lower fine,” Malloy said. “What we should really be using that technology for is to change habits, so the level of penalty, maybe, should be adjusted to allow the technology to be used to change the long-term behavior pattern.”
Looney, D-New Haven, plans to reintroduce the legislation when the General Assembly starts its brief, budget-adjustment session Feb. 8. Under the technology, violators’ license plates would be traced by police through photographs and fine notices would then be mailed to the owners of the vehicles.
Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Malloy-backs-red-light-cameras-2455339.php#ixzz1jA6sRWs3
Posted inLocal News, of Interest | american civil liberties, american civil liberties union, civil liberties union, Connecticut, CT, driver safety, Hartford, Insurance, insurance rates, license plates, malloy, motorists, new haven, Privacy, red light cameras, stop light, Stratford, Traffic, traffic signalNew Haven officials and others renew call for law that would allow red light cameras
NEW HAVEN — The city, members of the New Haven delegation and local safe street activists are making yet another run at state legislation that would allow it and other larger cities and towns to install traffic signal cameras to catch red light runners and mail them tickets.
Mayor John DeStefano Jr. and other supporters have pushed unsuccessfully for the legislation for the past seven years. In the 2011 legislative session, the bill made it farther than ever before, making it out of two committees before dying in judiciary.
State Sen. Martin Looney, D-New Haven, believed this year might be the year.
The New Haven Register asked the community for comments on the idea.
“This is the most practical way to address the red light running and dangerous driving in New Haven,” said East Rock Alderman Justin Elicker.
To be certain, there are supporters and detractors on both sides of the topic.
A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a non-profit funded by auto insurers, compared large cities with red light cameras to those without and concluded the devices reduced the fatal red light running crash rate by 24 percent.
DeStefano and other supporters were careful to cast the proposal as a public safety question, not as a revenue generator for the city. There were 5,644 accidents in the city last year and eight fatalities. Consistent enforcement of traffic laws has been shown to significantly decrease traffic violations, DeStefano argued, and red light cameras would assist an already shortstaffed Police Department in that enforcement effort.
Opponents argue the red light systems are simply cash cows that generate new streams of revenue for financially strapped municipalities — and do little or nothing to improve safety.
For original, complete article and video from the New Haven Register click here.
Posted inLocal News, of Interest | Auto insurance, auto insurers, car insurance, Connecticut, consistent enforcement, crash rate, CT, dangerous driving, enforcement effort, Insurance, insurance institute for highway safety, light runners, red light cameras, safety question, state legislation, Stratford, traffic laws, traffic signal, traffic violationsGet a Free Quote
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