Why Insurance Rates Are So High

I tried to settle a case against Fred Loya Insurance Company this week. It is a simple case that should be settled. Fred Loya's insured rear-ended my client's vehicle. There is no dispute as to who is at fault. My client was hurt. A board-certified radiologist found that she has a herniated disc, and a board-certified neurosurgeon says that she needs additional, invasive treatment, such an epidural block or, if that fails, spine surgery. The medical bills thus far are over $18,500, and Fred Loya's insured only has a $25,000 policy.

We offered to settle the case for the $25,000 policy limits. Fred Loya's response: They offered $3,500.00, less than one-fifth of my client's medical bills. There are no reason for these games.

I will make Fred Loya pay on this case, but to do so I will have to file a lawsuit, putting Fred Loya's insured through the stress of being served with legal papers, being interrogated under oath, and going through a trial. Fred Loya will end up spending more on lawyers fees, depositions, experts, and other costs than it would have spent to settle the case.

So when you wonder why your insurance premiums are so high, ask why these companies spend so much money forcing their own customers to be sued, rather than just treating people fairly be paying reasonable compensation early on.

Why I Do What I Do

On December 12, 2009, truck driver Thomas M. Wallace crashed his tractor-trailer into a disabled car, killing Julie Stratton, the 33 year old mother of two young boys. This tragedy was no mere accident. Not only had Wallace been on on duty for 27 hours--far more than the 14 hours allowed by Federal safety regulations; not only had Wallace kept a falsified log book to try to cover up his rulebreaking; but Wallace was actually watching porn on his lapop while driving. This fatigue and distraction kept his attention off the road and as a result there are two little boys who lost their mother.

Unfortunately, this type of behavior is far to common. For that reason, I and the other lawyers at The Cowen Law Group will keep working to hold trucking companies accountable when the violate safety rules and hurt people.

Feds Finally Ban Texting While Driving 18 Wheelers

The federal government finally took some action to protect motorists from the dangers created by careless tractor-trailer drivers. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a new regulation barring commercial motor vehicle operators from texting while driving.

That's a good step. Now we need to bar talking on the cell phone and using the internet or Qualcomm. 18-wheelers take longer to stop, and are full of blind spots. Their drivers need to devote their full attention to driving, and not be distracted by texts and phone calls.

Hopefully our police officers will enforce this important new safety rule.

School Buses Need Seat Belts

Another school year has started, and tens of thousands of South Texas parents are putting their kids on school buses every morning. Few of us think about it, but the school systems are exposing our children to an unnecessary danger. Virtually all of the school buses in Texas do not have seat belts!

Every year, children are needlessly killed due to lack of seat belts. Others suffer catastrophic injuries, including paraplegia and brain damage, and require lifelong care. Many of these tragedies could be prevented by installing seat belts, at a cost of only a nickel a day over the lifetime of a bus.

Bus manufacturers claim that belts not needed because of “compartmentalization.” They claim that children will be protected in crashes because they will slam into the padded back of the seat in front of them. But compartmentalization only works in frontal impacts. Only 33% percent of school bus crashes involve frontal impacts, so that means that compartmentalization does nothing for our kids in two out of every three crashes. In rollovers and side impacts, children go flying around the bus. Sometimes they even fly out of the bus, and get crushed when the bus or another vehicle rolls over them. The photo above shows an unbelted child-sized dummy during a rollover.

I am proud that my state senator, Eddie Lucio, Jr., bucked industry pressure and pushed through a law requiring all school buses purchased after 2010 to have three-point seat belts. But that’s not enough. It does nothing for our kids in 2009, who will continue to ride in buses without seat belts. Worse, the average school bus is in service for 10 years, which means that some of our kids will be riding without seat belts until at least 2020.

There are companies that sell seat belt systems which can be installed into existing school buses. We should write our local school districts and demand that they give all of our children the protection of three-point seat belts. An example of such a system is shown in the photo below.

For more information on school bus safety, or on how to contact your local school board, send me an e-mail at michael@cowenlaw.com, or call my assistant, Chelsy Del Castillo, toll free at (877) 385-1282.

Protecting Yourself From Uninsured Drivers

The McAllen Monitor has an article today about a new program to try to catch uninsured drivers. According to the article, 20% of Texas drivers do not carry liability insurance. My experience leads me to believe that the number is much higher in the Valley. In fact, the article showed that DPS had issued over 10,000 citations for no insurance last year in the Valley!

So what happens when an uninsured driver smashes into you? Well, that driver will get a ticket, but you will be left with a damaged vehicle, and often with large medical bills. While the driver is technically responsible for the damages he or she caused, the reality is that people who cannot afford liability insurance rarely have enough money to pay for the harm they cause.

You can protect yourself from irresponsible, uninsured drivers, but you have to do it before you get in a wreck. Buy Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist insurance, which is one of the best insurance products out there. It provides coverage in cases where the other driver has no insurance, and also in wrecks where the other driver's insurance is not enough to cover all of your damages. Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage is suprisingly affordable, and if you are even in a wreck it may be the difference between getting compensated or having to file bankruptcy because you can't pay a massive hospital bill.

Trucking Companies Still Breaking Safety Rules

In early June, the Texas Department of Public Safety conducted its Roadcheck 2009 campaign. The DPS inspected 7,316 18 wheelers. Out of those, 1,636 of the vehicles and 202 of the drivers had safety violations so serious that the troopers took the trucks off the road. The drivers had violations ranging from driving too many hours without sleeping to having suspended driver’s licenses to being under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Many of the trucks that had problems with their brakes.

What makes these statistics even more frightening is that the DPS had announced months in advance that it was going to be inspected vehicles on June 2-4. That means that even though the trucking industry knew that its vehicles and drivers would be inspected, there were still over 1,600 trucks and 200 drivers who had safety violations so serious that the troopers took them off the highway.

At The Cowen Law Group, we handle a lot of cases involving 18-wheeler accidents. We have found that the majority of these crashes result from trucking companies choosing to ignore simple safety rules. Obviously, the threat of getting tickets from the DPS is not enough to get some trucking companies to be safe. We believe that by thoroughly investigating truck wrecks and making the bad companies pay for the harm they cause, we will force them to either take safety seriously or to find another line of work so that the good trucking companies which care about safety can get more work.

Helping Parents Keep Their Kids Safe

It is hard for parents to get the information they need on car seat safety. I thought I was knowledgeable on safety issues. I did a ton of research. When my son outgrew his car seat, I bought the best booster I could find (the Britax Frontier) and did my best to install it according to the directions. However, I recently learned that I didn't get it right.

I learned because I sent one of my employees to a training course to become a certified child passenger safety technician. When he got back, he inspected my booster and told me that it had too much slack. If properly tightened, it should not move more than one inch in any direction. So even though I had done my homework and spend good money to buy the best protection around, my son was still not fully protected because I did not know how to install it properly.

I did some research, and learned that at least 80% of the child seats in the US are improperly installed. That means that of the parents that are actually making the effort to protect their kids, only 2 out of 10 are getting the protection they deserve. In the long run, manufacturers need to figure out a way to make child seats easier to install, or to give us better instructions. In the meantime, I've decided to do my little bit to help.

The Cowen Law Group will provide free child restraint inspections to any parent who wants one. If any parent wants our certified child passenger safety technician to inspect their car seat, all they have to do is call our office at (956) 541-4981 and make an appointment. If the child seat is improperly installed, we will reinstall it at no charge. If the child seat is not the right kind of seat for the child, we will educate the parent about what seat is needed and, if the parent does not have the financial resources to purchase a new seat, we will provide information regarding programs that assist parents in getting child restraints.