Consumer Insurance Blog

The eastern seaboard is thick in preparation for Hurricane Earl's arrival. Wayne Wiersma of Wiersma Insurance Agency offers a link to an excellent one-page sheet from the folks at Harleysville Insurance: Common Sense Advice: Before & After a Hurricane. It offers planning time lines for 36 and 24 hours before a hurricane, as well as advice on what to do after a hurricane and how to report a claim. (Please note, however, that phone numbers listed are only valid if for Harleysville customers. For all others, it would be a good idea to have phone numbers handy for both your agent and your homeowners' and auto insurance companies. ) The Insurance Information Institute also offers Hurricane Preparation Tips.

Here are a few other helpful links:
The National Weather Service's National Hurricane Center

Hurricane Tracker

FEMA's Hurricane Response & Recovery

FEMA's Business Emergency Preparation Resources

There are approximately 77.5 million pet dogs in the U.S., and some of them are driving their owners to distraction ... literally. In terms of distractions that interfere with driving, dogs are right up there with cell phones and texting. According to a recent survey on habits of dog owners and driving conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and pet product company Kurgo, 80% of the respondents said they've taken their pets on errands, day trips or vacations, yet only 17% said they use any form of restraint system. In fact, 21% admitted that they have let their dog to sit on their lap.

Survey respondents admitted to other potentially distracting behaviors, like patting (55%), feeding (7%) or playing with their dog (5%) while driving. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that looking away from the road for only two seconds doubles your risk of being in a crash. In 2008, there were 6,000 fatalities due to accidents caused by distracted drivers, according to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In addition to being a potential risk for accidents, driving with unrestrained pets is also very dangerous for the pet.

"Restraining your pet when driving can not only help protect your pet, but you and other passengers in your vehicle as well," cautioned Jennifer Huebner-Davidson, AAA National, Traffic Safety Programs manager. "An unrestrained 10-pound dog in a crash at 50 mph will exert roughly 500 pounds of pressure, while an unrestrained 80-pound dog in a crash at only 30 mph will exert 2,400 pounds of pressure. Imagine the devastation that can cause to your pet and anyone in the vehicle in its path."

If you're planning to buy a new car for your college-bound student, your first thought might be to shuffle the vehicle deck to give them grandma's car or your car, and then purchase a replacement. But experts say you might want to think twice about a strategy like that. Newer cars have all the latest safety features, a very important consideration four younger, less experienced drivers.

Before making any decisions, you might want to check with recent recommendations from Consumer Reports. On their Car Blog, they feature a video and a post talking about considerations when buying cars for teens and seniors. They offer their recent picks for the best car options in various classes for each population. Also see their picks for Small drivers and Tall drivers).

In their post, they make some other important points about teen drivers:

Many states have graduated licensing programs that progress teens through a series of steps to achieve the full freedom of driving, by restricting driving hours, passengers, and cell-phone usage. Even if your state doesn't have such a program in place, you can implement one at home. Studies have shown that there are biological risk factors that diminish as your teen becomes a young adult, signaling immaturity as a significant concern. Limiting risks when the teen is 16 and even 17 years old can increase the chances of responsible, accident-free driving.

What season is most dangerous to drive, winter or summer? If you said winter, you join about 83% of surveyed Americans. But the reality is that the three months of summer have the highest auto accident rates, accounting for about one in three fatalities. And as we've discussed before, Saturdays in August are some of the most dangerous days to drive.

When it comes to summer driving safety, there are definitely some spots that are hotter than others. The Daily Beast crunched the numbers on data 5 years of data from the National Highway Safety Administration to come up with a list of 100 U.S. interstates most likely to generate a fatal crash.

For another take on unsafe roads, you might turn to SafeRoadMaps, which offers a variety of interactive maps to tracks fatality data . See their report on states with the most rural summer hotspots (PDF).

Jon Burner of Forbes recently wrote an interesting article about America's fastest roads - highways where speeds often exceed 90 mph. While many of these roads tend to be long, straight highways in desolate areas, but the article cites some notorious urban areas too:

"The fastest road near an urban area is California Route 73, a six-lane freeway in Orange County that connects Santa Ana and San Juan Capistrano through the San Joaquin Hills. While the speed limit on that stretch is 65 miles per hour, the fastest 5% of drivers average speeds around 82 miles per hour over 17 miles of roadway.

Inrix's statistics also show that New Yorkers really do drive fast. The Westchester County suburbs of New York City are home to the fastest road in the eastern U.S. — and one of only two East Coast roads that made the list. Drivers on the winding, heavily traveled Saw Mill River Parkway frequently reach speeds of 78 to 85 miles per hour between the towns of Elmsford and Hawthorne, despite the 50-mile-per-hour speed limit.

Connecticut has the fastest stretch of Interstate highway in the country, according to Inrix. Over a one-mile distance on Interstate 84 northeast of Hartford, the fastest 5 percent of drivers routinely flaunt the 65-mile-per-hour speed limit by driving 85 miles per hour."

For more on deadly roads, see our prior post about the deadliest US roads - which includes a bonus breath-taking video on Bolivia's death road, called the most dangerous road on earth.

Whether it's via new media like social networks or "old school" technology like your home phone, don't let your guard down. The FBI recently has issued warning about two scams that are surfacing.

Denial of service phone attacks
The FBI has issued a warning about a new phone scam which uses telephone denial-of-services (d.o.s.) attacks to overwhelm victims' cell phones and land lines with thousands of calls. This diversionary tactic ties up service to give criminals time to empty out the victim's bank or brokerage accounts. Prior to the phone attack, the criminal would have obtained the victim's bank account numbers and password, either via malware that the victim has inadvertently downloaded or via information the victim gave out on the phone or in response to e-mail phishing. The subsequent DOS attack serves both as a distraction, and also prevents a victim from calling to make account changes to protect their accounts.

Social networking scam: your friend is stranded
Scammers send notices to your Facebook or Twitter contact list posing as you and telling your contacts that you are stranded after a robbery (or some similar calamity) and that you need help quickly. Of course, the requested help is urgent and would be in the form of cash. To avoid being taken in by such a scam, be alert and aware and simply verify any pleas for help before acting on them. And if you think your account has been hacked and that false messages are being sent to your contacts, post a note on your page alerting your friends and family that your account may be compromised and to ignore any such messages.

To protect yourself from these and other scams, the FBI suggests:

• Implement security measures for all financial accounts by placing fraud alerts with the major credit bureaus if you believe they were targeted by a TDoS attack or other forms of fraud
• Use strong passwords for all financial accounts and change them regularly
• Obtain and review your annual credit report for fraudulent activity
• If you are a target of a TDoS attack, immediately contact your financial institutions, notify your telephone provider, and promptly report it to the IC3 website at: www.IC3.gov

Other resources

• FBI - Common Fraud Schemes
• FBI - New e-scams and warnings
• FBI details most difficult Internet scams
• Census and survey scams
• 2010 - Recent Scams - as reported by the NY Consumer Protection Bureau
• Tips to avoid e-mail phishing
• 10 tips for social networking safety
• Common scams and scam resources
• On Guard Online
• How to reduce the risk of online fraud
• Stay Safe Online

Firework safety - Every year, there are thousands of injuries and an estimated 30,000 fires caused by fireworks. According to the National Fire Protection Association, in 2008 there were 7,000 injuries and 7 deaths, with 70% of the injuries occurring between June 20 and July 20. Even devices that many might consider safe can pose risks. For example, the tip of a sparkler burns at a temperature of about 2,000°F – hot enough to cause third degree burns. The US Fire Administration offers advice on firework safety. And remember - many states ban all or some fireworks: Use this clickable map to check state firework laws.

Traveling safety - if you will be spending the holiday away from home, you may want to be careful with what you share on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Unless your networks are private and you are careful about not linking to personal information, announcing your plans to be away might inadvertently tip off a would-be burglar that your home will be vacant. See our prior post: Please rob me: when social networking turns risky. Of course, not all crooks use technology to target empty homes, some just use old-school powers of observation. Before you go away, it's good to take precautions to protect your home when traveling. And here are some tips for preventing identity theft while you travel.

Driving Safety - The Fourth of July weekend is one of the deadliest times of the year to drive. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been tracking car crash statistics for 25 years, and the Fourth of July often tops the lost for fatal car accidents. And of the July 4 fatalities, usually more than half are related to alcohol. Most states will have intensive DUI checkpoints set up over the holiday weekend. And all you sober drivers need to be on particular alert, driving defensively on a busy traffic weekend. Check out our holiday road trip tips

More safety tips for the holiday weekend
Summer food poisoning is no picnic
Keeping kids safe: holiday & summer safety resources
Swimming pool and spa safety and insurance coverage
Bike safety for kids

As the economy eases and the real estate market shows signs of revival, many people whose home buying plans were on hold are now beginning to look around. If buying a new home or vacation property is on your agenda, the Insurance Information Institute (III) has some advice for you: make insurance considerations an important part of your home buying process. In addition to looking at considerations such as location, neighborhood, and home features, you need to do a risk assessment of the home and property so you don't find yourself owning something with some unpleasant surprises down the line.

For a quick overview of issues and considerations that you should be thinking of, see III's Home Buyer's Insurance Checklist and short video on the topic:

We're pleased to see that in addition to our Renaissance Alliance group blog, several of our member independent insurance agents are maintaining their own blogs. Here's a roundup of some recent posts we've found helpful:

Geoff Gordon's Blog from Gordon Insurance features recent posts on huge security threat that digital copiers pose, including a very scary video that business owners should see. Another recent post deals with Chinese drywall and the implications on your homeowner insurance.

The Wolpert Blog from Wolpert Insurance features a recent post on the Massachusetts Department of Transportation's new safety program: Bikes and cars: same roads same rules. The blog also features a post with an amusing video about a dog eating a cop car - you have to see it to believe it. Car-eating dogs is not a common peril for car owners - but that's the thing about insurance - it covers you for the unexpected.

Encharter's MA Insurance Blog offers some very helpful tips about safety in two areas of your household: pool safety and dryer safety.

For more advice and help from a Renaissance Alliance insurance agency, check our member listing in the sidebar on the the left or find an insurance agent near you on our Google map.

The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) has just announced that driver's license road tests can now be scheduled online. This should prove a welcome service to the 2,500 hundred people who take road tests in an average week - no more waiting on hold on the phone. It's good timing because the folks at the RMV say that there is higher demand for road tests over the summer.

If you haven't visited the MA RMV site lately, you might be surprised at all the things you can now do online. The site has experienced a 39% growth in traffic over the last year, making it the "busiest branch" office, which helps to relieve enormous pressure from the 30 branch locations. The MA RMV serves more than 4.6 million drivers a year.

Here are just some of the services that you can now do online:

• Apply for a learner's permit or for a first-time license
• Convert an out of state license
• Renew a license, MA ID and registration
• Sign up for a license renewal reminder
• Enroll as an organ and tissue donor
• Order a driving record, police crash report
• Register for Fast Lane transponder
• Pay tickets and citations
• Access forms and publications
• view license, registration, and title status

MA RMV adds more service representatives
The announcement about new online service follows a recent RMV announcement that it would be expanding customer service by adding 42 customer service representatives in front-line service positions and training 37 college interns to handle license and registration renewals in branches. As part of its ongoing partnership with AAA, it will also permanently open three new branches in AAA Southern New England offices - Worcester, Plymouth and Framingham. This will bring back Saturday service hours by July 1.

Follow news and updates from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation at Mass DOT on Twitter or on the MA DOT Transportation Blog.

A recent research report shows that kids suffer more injuries on holidays - and that Labor Day and Memorial Day are two of the most dangerous days for kids. Researchers say his is likely because these holidays are often celebrated outdoors and kids are more likely to take part in physical activities.

Researchers collected childhood-related injury information from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, a nationally representative sample of 98 U.S. hospital emergency departments, comparing records for eight major holidays over a 10 year period. The study did not include car-related injuries or minor injuries that did not require emergency room treatment.

According to an analysis of the research report written by Rachel Rettenr of LiveScience.com:

• 62% of the holiday injuries happened to boys
• 29% of the injuries happened to children under 5
• 41.6% of the holiday injuries were sports or recreation related
• About 20% of holiday injuries were "home structure" related, including injuries from doors and countertops
• About 16% of holiday injuries were related to home furnishings, including chairs and tables
• 29% of he injuries were lacerations

Here are a few tips to help keep your kids safe on Memorial Day:

• Safe Kids USA offers a few simple tips to avoid grilling injuries
• Pool safety guidelines for tots
• Are your windows childproof?
• Bicycling and skating safety
• 8 summer safety myths that put your kids at risk
• 8 reasons kids end up in ER and how to prevent it
• Don't let your kids get dehydrated