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msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] Insurance Requirements for MSAR Unit Members

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  • From: "Irvin Lichtenstein " <ilichten1@verizon.net>
  • To: "'Mounted search and rescue'" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] Insurance Requirements for MSAR Unit Members
  • Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:10:48 -0400

It goes beyond visible physical problems, such as early arthritis stiffening
joints or "old age" related problems. According to various insurance risk
managers who shall remain nameless so their bosses won't shoot them, any
hint of a previously undiagnosed problem will be used to deny a claim later
on. At least one township refused to pay for a volunteer fire chief's heart
attack, at a fire by the way, because while his previous physical cleared
him he was not at 100% at age 50 or so. His regular job was as an auto
mechanic in a dealership and he had no problems there. The township used
multi-township self insurance trust to cover workman's comp and paying for
his treatment and subsequent rehab would have cost them around $250,000 in
losses and raised their contribution to the trust substantially.

This is not a health and welfare issue but a financial issue.
This trust also insures township property. After a fire substation burned
in another township the fire company was told that their deductibles were
going from $1000 per vehicle to $50,000 per vehicle because they lost an
engine and a ladder in the fire. The fact that the other 10 pieces at the
main station didn't burn was not allowed for. It also took almost a year to
settle on the building. That township reportedly left the trust for a
private carrier.

Sometimes, "I know Nothing" is the best answer.

There are lots of things to worry about in the emergency services, making
the right decisions when a life is at stake is hard on people, and they tend
to stretch the physical point to get the job done. But how many of you check
drivers' licenses, registrations, and insurance before a member drives his
rig to a call? Having an unlicensed driver, or an inadequately insured
driver or an illegally registered rig is just as much a problem, maybe more
so. And do the rules change when you cross state lines? PA requires annual
state certified inspection of all trailers over 3000 pounds gross weight, MD
only when sold, NJ lets owners do self inspection. If a NJ trailer has a
wreck in PA because the brakes fail whose problem is that? Or do your
members use apportioned tags when their rig never leaves home? In the
middle Atlantic state lots of trailers are registered in Maine to beat
insurance and inspection rules. But, if the trailer is registered in Maine
are all trips in PA interstate hauls?

Think about your exposures and your practices and what you want in writing
to enforce and what you don't want to know about, ever.

Irv Lichtenstein
SE PA SAR





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