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TIS THE SEASON... A SAFETY
REMINDER
It a great time of
year! Our minds turn to family and friends, gifts and food, but lets not
forget about safety.
At this time of year people have a great deal on their mind.
Therefore, driving takes on a higher level of self-preservation & safety.
Remember to fine tune your defensive driving skills and expect the
unexpected where others are concerned. Consider using your headlights
during the day to maximize your visibility to others. Always buckle up
both yourself and family members when traveling. If you carry small
children, please remember to place them in approved child or booster seats
and follow the manufacturers instructions concerning proper use.
 SAFETY TIPS FOR DECORATING YOUR
HOME
Along with appearance and price, make safety a priority in picking out
your home's decorations this year. Here are some general tips to consider:
DECORATIVE LIGHTING
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Use only UL-approved lights.
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Make a careful check of lights for
damaged sockets and wires. If you have a doubt, replace them.
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Do not use indoor lights outdoors,
or outdoor lights indoors.
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One of the most common problems
people tend to overlook is overloading extension cords. Do not connect
more than three sets of lights to one cord.
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Make sure tree lights are securely
fastened.
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Turn off all holiday lights when you
leave home or go to bed.
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Remove outdoor lighting as soon as
the season is over. Even though specifically designed for outdoor use,
they are not designed for prolonged exposure to the elements.
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Never use a lit candle near a tree
or other decorations.
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Extinguish candles before leaving or
going to bed.
 USING LIVE TREES
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The most important safety factor to
consider is freshness. The fresher, the safer. Check by examining
needles. When you bend them between your finders, they shouldn't
break. Also, tap the tree on a firm surface. If more than a
handful of needles fall off, it's too dry. You can't depend on the
tree's color because some are sprayed green.
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Keep the tree away from
fireplaces, portable heaters, wall heaters and other heat sources.
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To maintain your tree's
freshness, cut off about two inches from the trunk and place it in
a sturdy water-holding stand with legs that are widely spread.
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Remember to keep watering your
tree. A 6-foot tree will use a gallon of water every two days.
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Mix a commercial tree
preservative with the water.
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Leave the tree outside until
ready to decorate.
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Don't block stairs or doorways
with the tree because this blocks exit pathways in case of an
emergency.
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Dispose of the tree if a
significant amount of needles begin to fall off.
ORNAMENTS & TRIMMINGS
Avoid placing small or
breakable ornaments on lower branches of your tree where
children or pets might knock them off. Among the list of
injuries related to holiday decorations each year, children
swallowing small ornaments and cuts from broken ornaments are
among the most frequent.
DOES INSURANCE COVER MOBILE DEVICES?
 Mobile
information devices like PDAs and MP3 players occupy the bags and pockets
of tens of millions of Americans. These devices can be pricey, often
costing hundreds of dollars. The cost to obtain the information programmed
on these gizmos can be exponentially more. If your portable device is
damaged or stolen, will these costs be covered by your insurance?
Personal Insurance
Consider the iPod. Their owners span every demographic. For some, the iPod
is as important to getting through the day as morning coffee or sunshine.
This pervasive product ranges in cost—usually a few hundred bucks or less
depending on bells and whistles—and that’s just for the hardware.
Downloading music can cost a dollar a song, videos and “podcasts” even
more. Add in time spent collecting this information and you’ve got
thousands of dollars invested in this thing. The same is true for other
portable devices.
The good news is that most homeowners policies cover personal property
while it is anywhere in the world—a positive considering the nature of
these devices. The bad news is that coverage is limited—meaning the check
you receive after the loss may not be what you expect.
While many believe their iPod is “worth” thousands of dollars, a
homeowners insurance policy is designed to cover “direct physical loss” to
property. Therefore, a typical policy will cover the cost of the device
itself but not the cost of the information stored on the device. Some
homeowner policies include coverage for loss to “personal records,” which
may include information stored on a portable device. However, not all will
do so and those that do likely limit coverage to a relatively small
amount. If you have questions, consult your Trusted Choice® insurance
professional.
Business Insurance
More and more people are using PDAs, such as BlackBerrys and iPhones, to
conduct business on the fly. These devices keep them wirelessly connected
to their work through email, Internet and phone.
If you own the device personally and use it for business, coverage under
your homeowners insurance policy is less generous. Personal property used
for business may not be covered worldwide and is subject to an amount of
insurance that is lower than other personal property. A further
restriction is that any limited coverage available for “personal records”
does not apply to business records.
If the device is owned by your employer, it’s likely covered under a
business insurance policy. Such policies contain similar limitations for
loss of information. Business owners should call their insurance
professional for information about electronic data coverage.
Back it Up
Whether used for business, personal, or both, cost to replace the device
itself is likely the extent your insurance will pay if it is damaged or
stolen. The best way to protect the information contained in the device is
to back-up data periodically. Then, even if you have to replace the
device, you won’t have to start from scratch.
WHY A $469 CAR REPAIR NOW CAN COSTS $9,051
 A
few years ago, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) set out
to really test car bumpers – to put them through the paces of a real-life
crash. Engineers smashed bumpers into other bumper-like objects, instead
of into walls, and set collisions at angles and different heights.
Some of what they found is hardly a surprise, like the fact that many of
today's bumpers don't align. Anyone who's seen a diminutive compact next
to an SUV could tell you that.
But engineers also reached a troubling conclusion, especially given the
dramatic improvements in vehicle safety over the past 40 years. Bumpers,
it seems, haven't kept up. In fact, they may have gotten worse.
"Bad bumpers," the IIHS summed up, "are the norm."
To understand just how bad, consider this: the bumper that provided the
best protection, by far, in the low-speed crash-test was on a 1981 Ford
Escort. After four impacts – two corner hits at 3 mph and two full-width
hits at 6 mph – the 30-year-old Ford sustained a total of just $469 in
damage, all from the 6 mph hits.
By contrast, each of the new vehicles – 17 new midsize models in 2007 –
sustained damages ranging from $4,277 (the Mitsubishi Galant) to $9,051
(the Nissan Maxima). For each vehicle, at least $1,800 of that damage was
the result of the two corner strikes at just 3 mph - the speed equivalent
of a moderate walk.
"Automakers could equip new cars with bumpers that are every bit as good
as the 1981 Ford Escort's, but they choose not to," IIHS president Adrian
Lund stated in the report.
Later, he added: "There's no excuse for this. Safety equipment like
headlights shouldn't be damaged in impacts at a mere 3 mph."
Repair costs drive insurance rates
The results of such crash tests are important to anyone who drives. Or,
more specifically, to anyone who pays for auto insurance.
A significant portion of your auto insurance premium is based on the
likelihood you will have an accident and the anticipated cost of that
accident. Car insurance companies that expect to pay $9,000 for a fender
bender will charge you accordingly, through higher premiums and higher
deductibles.
The average cost of all collision claims – excluding repairs that aren't
submitted to insurance – has risen 38 percent in the past decade, to
$4,047, according to the IIHS,
"It's quite amazing that we have the system that we do," says Kim
Hazelbaker, senior vice president of the Highway Loss Data Institute, an
IIHS affiliate. "We've got vehicles that are increasingly safer for us,
that protect us in larger crashes, but they're increasingly fragile" in
low-speed crashes.
Today's vehicles have remarkable safety designs, says Hazelbaker, "but
none of that engineering translates into the ability to take a lickin' and
keep on tickin' at the low end."
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an
insurance question.