News Category Archives :: Moseley Collins

California Forces Auto Insurers to Adjust Rates After Minority Neighborhoods Affected by Miscalculations

December 17, 2018 | by Moseley Collins

Nationwide Insurance and USAA are required by California to adjust rates for auto insurance. The request was caused by a report form ProPublica and Consumer Reports. According to that report, several minority neighborhoods paid more for their car insurance than those in predominately white neighborhoods with the same risk factors.

Insurance regulators confirmed price differences are linked to incorrect usage of a California law provision. The provision allows insurance companies to put several neighborhoods in the same area into one rating territory. The two insurers affected, Nationwide and USAA, are numbered in the top ten largest providers by market share in the United States. The proposed adjustments to rates will greatly reduce racial inequalities in the two providers pricing.

The analysis from Consumer Reports showed USAA pricing was 18% higher on the average. Nationwide had a 14% higher rate. These rates were higher in economically challenged, minority areas than in neighborhoods with more white people but the same high accident costs. According to the California Department of Insurance, it is impossible to quantify how adjustments will affect insured’s premiums. Revisions are just too complex. Making it even harder, these revisions are happening at the same time as a general rate increase. Insurers are now required to show more justification for their measure of risk in underprivileged, minority neighborhoods. California designates these areas as underserved in the auto coverage industry.

New Tesla Auto Insurance Could Disrupt Industry

November 28, 2018 | by Moseley Collins

A new auto insurance policy from Tesla was released in October 2017 without much fanfare among North American car owners. The new policy, called InsureMyTesla, is a venture in part with Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. Earlier partnerships have been launched in Canada, Hong Kong and Australia. The automaker hopes the policy will give its vehicle owners deeply discounted rates tailored specifically to the highly advanced safety features of Tesla autos. The autopilot system is unique in its field and highly-touted.

InsureMyTesla is a revolutionary type of coverage that takes into account that autonomous vehicles will make insurance coverage obsolete eventually. Self-driving cars are designed to be able to avoid every type of accident and they are coming closer and closer to that goal every year. Until the time that only self-driving cars populate the roads, it seems that all of the advanced safety features of Tesla cars would reduce insurance rates. Some owners, however, have reported rate hikes in their premiums for their Tesla cars.

A recent example is that of AAA. They raised rates on Tesla automobiles in June, citing information which showed the Model X and Model S had higher than usual claim frequencies and higher costs of claims compared to others in the same class. In turn, Tesla called AAA’s analysis flawed and unrealistic. They noted that the comparisons were not among cars of the same caliber.

Lawmakers and Activists Claim People Have a Right to Sue for Elderly Abuse in Nursing Homes

November 21, 2018 | by Moseley Collins

Tax reform, healthcare and the debt ceiling have been at the top of the agenda for Congress. However, consumer activists and Democratic lawmakers are serving notice of their intent to continue protecting the right of people to sue nursing homes for abuse and neglect of the elderly patients in their care since the Trump administration plans to rollback legal rights for people to sue nursing homes Obama put in place.

Under the Obama administration’s plan, nursing homes which receive federal funding, which is most, were prohibited from requiring all disputes, including neglect and abuse, to be addresses through a mandatory arbitration as opposed to the legal system.

During the August recess, 31 senators wrote to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provisions in their contracts for mandatory arbitrations. Lawmakers stressed that forced arbitration stacks the deck against the residents and their loved ones. Residents face a wide array of potentially harmful activity. Physical abuse and neglect, as well as sexual abuse and wrongful death at the hands of nursing home staff are top among the atrocities residents can possibly face.

California Has a Plan to Protect Motorists from Tahoe’s Toppling Trees

November 17, 2018 | by Moseley Collins

Trees falling onto motorists travelling along the highway can be deadly. This has proved to be a consistent problem in the Tahoe Basin area year after year, season after season. In September, California Public Service workers will begin cutting down trees that are drought-weakened or dead. This major statewide effort attempts to protect motorists from falling trees.

Earlier this year, during heavy winter snowstorm weather on Highway 89, a tree fell into the roadway and killed a Tahoe City woman as she drove in her car in Squaw Valley. Other mountain highways near the lake have also experienced tragic crashes caused by falling limbs and trees. Highway 89 will be where crews begin their work. A $115 million California safety campaign has made it possible for crews to have already cut more than 100,00 dead trees all over the state on state property next to highways.

The next step in the process begins after Labor Day when crews will begin cutting trees on private property that sits adjacent to highways. According to the State Department of Transportation, crews are instructed to approach private dwellings and ask for permission to cut the trees at the states expense. The trees must be dead and in danger of obstructing the roadway to be cut down. Once trees are marked to be cut, property owners will receive a Permission to Enter form in the mail within one to six months. It is illegal for the state to cut down trees on private property without the owner’s permission. Some dead trees on private property have already been marked along highways around Tahoe including 28, 50, 89, and 267, which are all used heavily by skiers and winter sports enthusiasts.

Jury Finds Police at Fault in Woman’s Death After High Speed Chase

November 15, 2018 | by Moseley Collins

Maria Gaglione, 24, from Pittsburg, died after the car she was a passenger in during a high-speed chase with police in a stolen car. Her parents assert she did not know the car had been stolen 2 days earlier and was not participating in the flight from law.

Jurors at a coroner’s inquest ruled the death was not an accident and was caused by the police in a negligent and dangerous chase. The father of the victim spoke out in agreement with the decision. Two Clayton sheriff’s deputies, chased the car at speeds of over 80 MH in an area designated at 25 MPH in Concord. The driver of the stolen car was Amy Fiasconaro, 32, of Antioch. She lost control of the car and hit a wall at 109 MPH. She also hit a tree on Myrtle Drive in front of Myrtle Farm Montessori School. The roof of the car smashed Gaglione in the passenger seat. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Fiasconaro was found a few feet away crawling around on her hands and knees. She first said Gaglione was driving. Fiasconaro was found to have heroin and methamphetamine in her bloodstream.

Coroner’s inquests are held in all officer-involved or in-custody deaths in Contra Costa County. They are publicly held to determine cause of death. Findings cannot be appealed. They have no criminal or civil implications. Gaglione’s death was said to have been caused by someone’s negligence and not an accident. Her father feels the police were at fault and should be fired and imprisoned.

California Court Throws Out Text-Lock Case Against Apple

November 13, 2018 | by Moseley Collins

The death of a California college student by a distracted driver prompts his father to file a claim against Apple for a failure to institute a program to disable texting while driving.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge, Judge Maureen Folan decided against plaintiff Craig Riggs in August, saying he had not adequately proved that Apple should bear responsibility in the death of his son, David Riggs in 2013. The suit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning no option of refiling the claim.

David Riggs died in 2013 while riding a scooter on the way to his Minnesota home. He was hit by distracted teen driver sending text messages on his iPhone in a Honda Civic. The teen was only convicted of a misdemeanor.

Jury Finds Police at Fault in Woman’s Death After High Speed Chase

July 9, 2018 | by Moseley Collins

Maria Gaglione, 24, from Pittsburg, died after the car she was a passenger in during a high-speed chase with police in a stolen car. Her parents assert she did not know the car had been stolen 2 days earlier and was not participating in the flight from law.

Jurors at a coroner’s inquest ruled the death was not an accident and was caused by the police in a negligent and dangerous chase. The father of the victim spoke out in agreement with the decision. Two Clayton sheriff’s deputies chased the car at speeds of over 80 MH in an area designated at 25 MPH in Concord. The driver of the stolen car was Amy Fiasconaro, 32, of Antioch. She lost control of the car and hit a wall at 109 MPH. She also hit a tree on Myrtle Drive in front of Myrtle Farm Montessori School. The roof of the car smashed Gaglione in the passenger seat. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Fiasconaro was found a few feet away crawling around on her hands and knees. She first said Gaglione was driving. Fiasconaro was found to have heroin and methamphetamine in her bloodstream.

Coroner’s inquests are held in all officer-involved or in-custody deaths in Contra Costa County. They are publicly held to determine the cause of death. Findings cannot be appealed. They have no criminal or civil implications. Gaglione’s death was said to have been caused by someone’s negligence and not an accident. Her father feels the police were at fault and should be fired and imprisoned.

California Has a Plan to Protect Motorists from Tahoe’s Toppling Trees

July 6, 2018 | by Moseley Collins

Trees falling onto motorists traveling along the highway can be deadly. This has proved to be a consistent problem in the Tahoe Basin area year after year, season after season. In September, California Public Service workers will begin cutting down trees that are drought-weakened or dead. This major statewide effort attempts to protect motorists from falling trees.

Earlier this year, during heavy winter snowstorm weather on Highway 89, a tree fell into the roadway and killed a Tahoe City woman as she drove in her car in Squaw Valley. Other mountain highways near the lake have also experienced tragic crashes caused by falling limbs and trees. Highway 89 will be where crews begin their work. A $115 million California safety campaign has made it possible for crews to have already cut more than 100,00 dead trees all over the state on state property next to highways.

The next step in the process begins after Labor Day when crews will begin cutting trees on private property that sits adjacent to highways. According to the State Department of Transportation, crews are instructed to approach private dwellings and ask for permission to cut the trees at the expense of the state. The trees must be dead and in danger of obstructing the roadway to be cut down. Once trees are marked to be cut, property owners will receive a Permission to Enter form in the mail within one to six months. It is illegal for the state to cut down trees on private property without the owner’s permission. Some dead trees on private property have already been marked along highways around Tahoe including 28, 50, 89, and 267, which are all used heavily by skiers and winter sports enthusiasts.

New Reporting Guidelines for Car Crashes Prepare for Self-Driving Cars

July 1, 2018 | by Moseley Collins

The latest edition of the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria has a new section instructing how to report on the newly emerging autonomous automobiles.

Administrators from all sectors of the automotive and technology fields, as well as government officials, are actively preparing for the very-near future of self-driving cars. The Governors Highway Safety Association, along with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), have just released the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria, which is the criteria by which law enforcement and other agencies report car accident data. The fifth edition is the first to include instructions on reporting crashes involving autonomous vehicles. It is updated every five years.

Many American drivers are not aware of how soon we will be seeing self-driving cars on our roads with regularity. More companies are announcing their intent to develop these cars every year. It is estimated the United States will have several thousand self-driving vehicles on the streets by 2020. The number goes up to 4.5 million by 2035.

Sacramento’s Drivers are Some of the Worst in America

June 26, 2018 | by Moseley Collins

A new study shows Sacramento drivers are the worst out of all 75 of the most populated urban areas in the country. Drivers in Detroit and Orlando, Florida are the best. Salt Lake City, Utah has the second worst drivers in the country behind Sacramento. Two million nationwide data points were studied throughout 2016 to find these results. Incident counts for all 75 inner city areas were weighted against the occurrence percentages. Traffic citations, DUI’s, speeding tickets and number of accidents were all calculated to find the final rankings.

Sacramento earned its distinguished title of worst drivers in the country because it also has the highest rate of traffic citations in the nation. QuoteWizard Insurance, the agency reporting the study results suggested Sacramentans consider traveling the cities many waterways to work as an option to its dangerous streets. Besides Sacramento, Fresno, Riverside, San Diego and Los Angeles were also among the nation’s worst drivers.