Auto Injury Claims Still High Despite Improvements
NU Online News Service, Jan. 24, 3:09 p.m. EST?Bodily injury liability claim rates from auto accidents remain high despite trends indicating that auto accident rates and serious crash injuries have decreased, according to the Insurance Research Council.[@@]
In its report, "Trends in Auto Injury Claims, 2004 Edition," the Malvern, Penn.-based research association, a division of the American Institute of CPCU and the Insurance Institute of America, said that one in four auto accidents resulted in a bodily injury claim in 2003.
"Indicators such as extent of disability, days of restricted activity and time lost from work tell us that auto accidents are producing fewer serious injuries. The good news is that auto safety campaigns and the manufacture of safer cars have made a difference," said Elizabeth A. Sprinkel, senior vice president of the IRC.
Ms. Sprinkel said the injury liability claim rate is clearly "influenced by the attitudes and behaviors of auto accident victims, and that rate has increased over time."
In 1980, slightly fewer than one in five auto accidents produced bodily injury claims that year.
The increase in the claims ratio since 1980 is explained, in part, by the combination of increase in bodily injury claim rate while the property damage rate decreased.
IRC said the claim rate information is broken down for all 50 states and shows that state claim rates vary widely.
Under the bodily injury coverage, people who are injured in auto accidents not only receive compensation for medical treatment and other accident-related expenses, but for pain and suffering and emotional distress as well. Bodily injury awards are paid by auto insurers of at-fault drivers.
One reason that bodily injury claim rates vary from state to state is differences in auto insurance laws. In no-fault states, for example, bodily injury claims can be filed only when the cost for treatment of auto injuries exceeds a specific dollar amount in medical expenses or when a verbal description of injury-related impairment is met. Other states do not have these requirements.
Copies of the study are available for $250 each in the United States, $265 elsewhere, postpaid from the Insurance Research Council, 718 Providence Road, Malvern, Pa. 19355-0725, or by calling 610-644-2212, extension 7569.
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