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ROAD ACCIDENTS

2 July 2015 By Digital Curator Leave a Comment

Image via Flickr user William Murphy

As of 1st June 2008, the Motor Claims Framework (‘MCF’), has been introduced by the General Insurance Association of Singapore (‘GIA’) and is intended to be a policy condition which motor insurers will enforce. The MCF sets out procedures for motorists to follow when their vehicles meet with an accident. Under the MCF, all accidents, regardless of how minor, and even if the damage is not visible, must be reported to your insurers within 24 hours or by the next working day. It does not matter if you intend to claim from the insurers or Third Parties; you must still lodge a report with your insurers. With this new policy, all insurers will operate a 24-hour hotline. Even if you enter into a private settlement with the driver of the other vehicle involved in the accident, you must still report the accident to your insurers. You may wish to visit the GIA’s website at www.gia.org.sg for more information.

What to Do at the Accident Site

You should take down the following particulars:
- registration numbers and name of insurance companies of all vehicles involved in the accident;
- names, NRIC Numbers, addresses and telephone numbers of the drivers, passengers, injured pedestrians and witnesses.
You should also give your particulars to the other parties involved in the accident.
Contact your insurers for a tow truck in the event you need one to move your vehicle after an accident, or if you need advice about the accident. You should not engage any unauthorized tow truck operators.
If it is a serious accident e.g. where someone is injured or has died, call the police. As the police need to draw a sketch plan, do not move the vehicles or dead bodies.
If possible,
- make a sketch plan or mental note of the accident site, position of vehicles, any landmarks; and
- take photographs of all damage caused by the accident and the scene of the accident, whether or not anyone has suffered injuries. You must keep the negatives of those photographs if you are using a film camera..
This is important. Many do not realize how essential and helpful sketch plans, photographs of the scene of the accident and photographs of damage sustained are to parties who are trying to resolve the accident claim, be it pre or post writ.
Note:Should you, as a vehicle owner, fail to report to your insurers within 24 hours of the accident, then you may find yourself prejudiced. That is, your insurers will have the right to reject your claim or to claim from you any sums paid by them for a third party claim made against you or your driver. This may result in a loss of your No Claim Discount when you review your policy next.

What to Do Immediately After

Police report

You should make a written police report as soon as possible at any police station or Neighbourhood Police Post. If you are hospitalized as a result of the accident, make your report as soon as you are discharged from hospital.

You have to give all the information mentioned in the paragraph ‘What to do at the accident site’.

The report must be made in English. If you have difficulty, ask someone to help you write a report or you can explain the accident to the police officer who will translate it into an English written report for you.

The police report is important because it is the official written record of the accident. Your insurance company, the police and lawyers will refer to it if you make any claim for compensation.

If you delay making a police report or General Insurance Association of Singapore (‘GIA’) report after an accident without good reason, there may be adverse inferences drawn against you. You must make a report of the accident to your insurers within 24 hours of the accident.

Damage to your vehicle

You should arrange for your damaged vehicle to be removed to the approved reporting centre for a survey to be conducted and for repairs, within 24 hours of the accident or by the next working day. Again you should avoid any unauthorized repair workshops. If, however, you wish to claim against the insurer of the other vehicle, you may wish to give the other vehicle’s insurer an opportunity to inspect your vehicle within a reasonable time (e.g. 48 hours).

See Full Story on lawsociety.org.sg

11 Reasons Why Hybrid Cars Are Better Than You Think

30 June 2015 By Digital Curator Leave a Comment

Image via Flickr user Kevin Dooley

When hybrid cars first came to our shores in 2001, they were an odd curiosity. In the intervening years, most Americans seem to have made up their mind regarding this new type of vehicle. Hybrid owners love their cars while drivers of traditional vehicles have reached their own conclusions, based largely on some erroneous assumptions.

Here are nine reasons why a hybrid car is better than you think it is.

1. Hybrids Are Not Slow

Many people conclude that the additional gas mileage offered by hybrids are not worth the cost of driving the slowest car on the road. In fact, hybrids are faster than you might think for an obvious reason – hybrid cars have multiple engines. In addition to the conventional gasoline engine, hybrids contain 1-3 electric motors that provide a little more horsepower and a lot more torque. Some models, like the Prius, use a smaller gasoline engine than similarly sized cars, but other hybrids simply add an electric motor to the standard engine which results in a faster combination than the non-hybrid version.

2. Hybrid Efficiency Is Not Just About The Car, It Is Also About The Driver

It is possible to drive a hybrid just like any other car, but your fuel economy will suffer. Hybrids want to be driven in a different manner in order to take advantage of all of the inherent efficiencies of their drive-trains. To help drivers get the most miles per gallon, most hybrids include some sort of feedback system that lets drivers know how the car is operating. For example, drivers learn when their car is in electric only mode, when the gas engine is running, and when they are generating energy from braking.

3. Hybrids Require Less Maintenance

When your engine is only running half of the time, your car will require fewer oil changes. Additionally, since a hybrid uses generators to decelerate while charging its battery, it will use its friction brakes far less often. The result is a car that will drive more miles before needing brake service.

4. Hybrid Batteries Will Outlast The Car

The most common concern that most drivers have with the concept of a hybrid is that they have an expensive battery that will need to be replaced. It is true that a hybrid’s batteries make up a substantial portion of the additional cost, but concerns that the battery will be unreliable are unfounded. In fact, Consumer Reports tested a 10 year old Prius and compared its performance to the same model when it was tested as new. They concluded that the 10 year old car with 200,000 miles performed identically to when it was tested as new. Furthermore, cities that have used hybrids as taxis found that their batteries were also working fine when the vehicles were retired as planned after 250,000 miles.

by Jason Steele

See Full Story on lifed.com

Insurance rise for ships and oil rigs

25 June 2015 By Digital Curator Leave a Comment

Image via Flickr user つだ

Ships and oil rigs that come to New Zealand will be forced to massively boost the amount of insurance they carry to guard against the environmental costs of an accident.

It is not known what the new level will be, but it could be five to ten times current levels, perhaps more.

The matter came up at a hearing in Wellington to consider a request by Shell Todd Oil Services to extend its gas pumping operations at the Maui gasfield off the coast of Taranaki, which has been operated since 1979 and could still be going in 2030.

The company needs a marine consent to continue operating under legislation governing New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

While considering that application, the Environmental Protection Authority called managers from Maritime New Zealand to find out what protections are in place against an oil spill.

They learned that ships and oil rigs must carry a level of insurance equivalent to $27 million.

This does not refer to the level the Shell Todd rigs actually carry, but is the legal minimum for all vessels.

Maritime New Zealand general manager for safety and response Nigel Clifford told the hearing this was “not a very large amount on money at the present time”.

Outside the hearing, he said Government officials were working on requiring a much higher fee.

He did not say how much this would be, but said some wrecks overseas were incurring costs of hundreds of millions of dollars and this was being looked at by officials.

Clean up costs for the container ship Rena after it ran aground off the Bay of Plenty four years ago have reached $45 million but salvage costs have been estimated at $450 million.

Any new coverage level would be likely to have to go some way to meeting these sorts of sums.

Legal arguments are holding up the question of the Rena‘s final salvage.

by Eric Frykberg

See Full Story on radionz.co.nz

Diesel Cars: The Better Alternative You NOW Know About

23 June 2015 By Digital Curator Leave a Comment

Image via Flickr user Jose Luis Cernadas Iglesias

Surprise, surprise! You may remember how LTA re-categorized certain cars from CAT A to CAT B to reduce COE prices based on engine power. Sure, you won’t be seeing the Mazda RX8 or BMW 316i in CAT A anymore. But as Channel News Asia reported, there are still some luxury diesel-powered cars in CAT A that squeaked by the recent re-classification because of low engine power.

This means 2 things – 1) COE prices won’t be going down too much anytime soon because of these luxury diesel-powered cars still on Class A and 2) If you’re in the market for a new luxury car that’ll save you money on fuel, maintenance, and the cost COE, you better buy it now because I don’t think these cars will in CAT A for long.

Here’s a little more info on why diesel-powered cars are worth buying:

Interested in Switching Over to Diesel?

You already know that buying a new car is a horrible investment! By the time you’ve finished paying for COE, OMV, GST, and ARF, you’ve already forked over enough cash to buy a 3-Room BTO flat, or a platoon of T-72 tanks (I’m not kidding).

But if you’re dead set on either trading in your current car or have the capital to get yourself a new car this 2014, you need to consider buying a diesel car. True, they’re about as rare in Singapore as the slow loris and slightly more expensive than normal cars, but there’s a reason why they’re so popular in places like Europe – they’re fuel efficient, reliable, and attractive.

by Jeff Cuellar

See Full Story on blog.moneysmart.sg

Growth in Asia will boost London-Singapore ties

3 June 2015 By Digital Curator Leave a Comment

Image via Flickr user Davide D’Amico

The rising demand for financial services in Asia offers many opportunities for London and Singapore to strengthen their connections for sustainable insurance growth, Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) told the Insurance Institute of London in a speech at Lloyd’s yesterday (Tuesday May 12).

Menon said that in addition to strengthening and updating its regulation and supervision of the insurance industry, MAS has been promoting Singapore’s development as an Asian insurance hub.

He stressed that the demand for insurance services is growing rapidly in Emerging Asia with some estimates suggesting Asia will account for 40 percent of the global insurance market by 2020.

He identified three structural factors driving demand for insurance in Emerging Asia: Asia is getting richer, the population is getting older and the region more aware of catastrophic risk.

“Over the last 30 years, Asia has borne the brunt of natural catastrophe losses, accounting for almost half of the world’s estimated economic losses from natural disasters. Yet less than 5 percent of the losses were insured, compared to 40 percent in advanced economies,” he said.

This large protection gap in Emerging Asia presents the global insurance industry, confronting mature markets and excess capacity, with a significant opportunity to deploy capital for better returns, he said.

He argued that international financial centres in Asia, like Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as domestic financial centres in China and Korea are well-placed to meet this growing demand for insurance in Asia.

“But international financial centres outside Asia – such as London – with the enormous breadth of their markets, depth of financial expertise, and connectivity with other financial centres – also stand to gain from Asia’s rise,” Menon said.

He added: “London is the undisputed global insurance market for specialty commercial risks – insuring highly exotic and bespoke risks from Formula 1 drivers to Cristiano Ronaldo’s legs.

“London controls more than £60 billion in premiums, which makes the London market twice the size of Bermuda, three times that of Switzerland, and more than 10 times bigger than Singapore.

by Ravi Menon

See Full Story on intelligentinsurer.com

Insurance companies ready to use drones to evaluate claims

1 June 2015 By Digital Curator Leave a Comment

Image via Flickr user David Rodriguez Martin

It is currently illegal in the United States to fly drones for commercial use. However, in 2012 the Federal Aviation Association Modernization and Reform Act enabled the Secretary of Transportation to grant exemptions to approved companies that requested to use them. The first was granted last September and as of publication, 159 exemptions have been given to companies interested in using drones for agriculture, motion pictures, surveying and other operations.

While Amazon garnered the most media and consumer attention after announcing its goal of bringing drone delivery services to customers, one of the world’s largest industries has been positioning itself for years to take advantage of robotic flight: insurance.

Using drones for research and development at USAA

USAA, an insurer with more than 10 million members, was granted two different exemptions earlier this month. The company has been researching and developing drone technology since 2010.

Kathleen Swain, USAA’s Innovation Advisor and a licensed FAA commercial pilot, said five years ago the drone community was not fully developed for the commercial market, so companies began high-level independent research. The insurer partnered with PrecisionHawk, a drone manufacturer in North Carolina, and used the technology whenever possible within the narrow guidelines and laws that apply to unmanned aircraft systems in the United States.

More recently, USAA used drones in conjunction with Texas A&M University’s Roboticists Without Borders to survey Oso, Wash. after a mudslide consumed a nearby rural neighborhood in 2014. The company also continued its own independent testing until it received the exemptions, expanding the breadth of its drone program.

The first exemption granted April 2 allows USAA to “operate an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to conduct research and development” within specific guidelines. The PrecisionHawk Lancaster drone (the aircraft stated in the exemption request) is the only drone the company is permitted to use at this time. The drone has a 4-foot wingspan, weighs 41 pounds and looks like a small propeller plane. It’s stored inside a carrying case small enough to be checked onto commercial airliners.

by Michael Thrasher

See Full Story on venturebeat.com

Questions to ask when hiring a maid for your home

29 May 2015 By Digital Curator Leave a Comment

Image via Flickr user Chrisissy

The Maids of East Toronto and Durham Region can help you keep your home clean and healthy, even when life gets too busy!

It’s common for housework to creep down to the bottom of your ‘to do’ list.

Between work, the kids, activities and a social life, there’s rarely any time left in your day to clean the house. That’s why so many people are turning to cleaning companies to take the burden of housecleaning off their shoulders. Withregular cleanings, you will have more time to focus on doing the things you want to do.

Before hiring a cleaning company, there are several questions you should ask.

First, find out if they are fully insured, including workers compensation, liability and damage insurance. This is important because if the person cleaning your house injures themselves or damages your property and is not insured, you will be liable for that.

Many companies use subcontractors as a way to save money and distance themselves from the people doing the work. Find out if the cleaning company has staff that work for them or if they are contracting out the work.

As with any kind of service, you want to make sure that you are getting good value for the money you are paying. Ask the cleaning company about how things in your house will be cleaned. For example, will they just clean around your belongings or will they pick things up and clean around them? What services are included for the money you are paying?

Find out what type of products they will be using to clean your house. Some services use what you have and others bring their own. It’s important to know if the products they are using are safe and non-toxic, especially if you have children or pets living in the home.

Finally, ask if their services are guaranteed. You want to make sure that you will be happy with the cleaning, and if you are not, that the company will do something to make things right.

See Full Story on durhamregion.com

Culture of personal injury claims threatens to hit company car insurance

27 May 2015 By Digital Curator Leave a Comment

Image via Flickr user Pictures of Money

A PLAGUE of personal injury claims is threatening to hit businesses running company cars with the knock-on effect of increased insurance premiums according to analysis by the AA.

For while the motoring organisation noted that a typical annual comprehensive car insurance policy fell over the first three months of this year, it expects this drop to be reversed aided by an on-going personal injury claim culture.

Recent research by the AA showed that 11% of motorists say they see nothing wrong in making a claim for compensation in the event of a no-fault collision even if no injury is suffered. Connor says this culture is encouraged by cold-calls from claims management firms.

“Despite the premium falls over the past couple of years, the cost of cover remains higher in the UK than in most other European countries, thanks to the claims culture in the UK,” Janet said Janet Connor, managing director of AA Insurance. “While the number of crashes on Britain’s roads has fallen, the number of injury claims has risen.

“It’s time consumers understood the connection between premiums and making fraudulent claims. Car insurance is there to protect drivers in the event of a crash, not as an opportunity to cash in. Insurance isn’t a savings account.

“My greatest fear is that if insurance fraud such as whiplash injury claims isn’t brought under control and quickly, we will see a repeat of the spiralling premiums of 2010 and 2011 when the cost of the average policy rose by over 40% in just 12 months.”

The latest benchmark AA British Insurance Premium Index, which has shown the average Shoparound quote, which uses both direct/broker and comparison site prices, fell by 1% or £5.58, to £530.47.

by Paul Myles

See Full Story on businesscarmanager.co.uk

Changes in auto insurance rule slammed by crash victims

25 May 2015 By Digital Curator 1 Comment

Image via Flickr user durrah03

In the blink of an eye and the twist in a road 11 years ago, the lives of two young sisters changed for ever.

Shannon and Erica Deering were teenagers looking ahead to full and active lives.

Shannon, now 29, had won a scholarship to play softball in Florida. Erica, now 26, was still in high school but had hopes of becoming a lawyer.

All that changed in a horrific crash when both sisters suffered dreadful spinal injuries that left them quadriplegic.

Shannon was driving along a rural road between Oshawa and Port Perry when she was forced off the road.

At a news conference Wednesday, mom Deborah recalled the horror she faced when she had to bring her disabled daughters back to a home that had to be retrofitted to accommodate their wheelchairs.

Aside from major renovations to their home, they had to pay for nursing, physiotherapy and 24-hour attendant care.

“The costs are astronomical,” she recalled.

Just one thing stood between them and financial ruin.

“We said, ‘Thank God we had insurance.’”

Shannon and Erica were at Queen’s Park with other accident victims and the Personal Injury Alliance to protest changes to insurance rules introduced in last month’s budget.

The government proposes to slash the maximum amount a person can claim for a catastrophic injury from $2 million to $1 million.

And $2 million may sound like a lot of money, but when you’re paying for round-the-clock care, it gets eaten up quickly.

“We’ve already spent almost half of the $2 million we got from insurance,” Shannon said.

The Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty came to power in 2003 on a pledge to reduce the cost of car insurance premiums.

While premiums may have gone down, so have benefits — unless drivers buy additional insurance.

While no one argues the need to hold the line on payouts for minor bumps, sprains and strains, this change is devastating for people who’ve been consigned to a wheelchair for life.

It’s not just drivers who must worry.

Pedestrians and cyclists who don’t carry their own car insurance will suffer if they’re in an accident and the driver who hit them doesn’t have the extra coverage.

“There’s a whole group of people who won’t have the option to buy the optional benefits about which the Liberal government is speaking,” lawyer Sloan Mandel told reporters.

by Christina Blizzard

See Full Story on orilliapacket.com

Personal Injury Law: A catastrophic ambush changed by insurance

22 May 2015 By Digital Curator Leave a Comment

Image via Flickr user Injury Lawyers San Luis Obispo

As part of the provincial budget announced on April 23, the Ontario government has decided to first throw seriously injured accident victims off the bus and then deprive them of the ability to make a good recovery. The announcement comes as a total blindside to interested stakeholders.

Historically, whenever the Ontario government was considering major changes to automobile insurance legislation, there was widespread consultation with stakeholders. That consultation process consistently revealed it was common ground among all stakeholders that it was sacrosanct to reduce the benefits available to the most seriously injured persons. As a result, prior changes focused on changes other than reductions in the benefits available to the catastrophically impaired.

The government’s announcement includes five major changes. Each change reduces the funding available to accident victims. Each change reduces the chance for an accident victim to regain their independence. Each change results in further pressure on the currently underresourced public health care system.

The changes, in order of least to most significant, are:
— A reduction in the benefit maximums in non-catastrophic impairment claims from the current total maximum of $86,000 (being $50,000 for medical and rehabilitation benefits plus $36,000 in attendant-care benefits) to a combined total of $65,000. In addition, the duration for accessing these benefits falls to five years from 10 years except in cases involving children. Prior to the Sept. 1, 2010, changes, these benefits totalled $172,000, so the new reduced maximum, after accounting for inflation, is about a 65-per-cent reduction from the amounts available prior to that time.

— A reduction in the duration of eligibility for non-earner benefits from life to a maximum of two years (albeit without the six-month waiting period that currently applies). This change will affect students the most as they had previously qualified for a higher weekly benefit rate of $320 a week after two years. For example, a seriously injured teenager who will never work again because of accident-related injuries will now be unable to access the weekly benefit.

— Indexing the tort deductibles to inflation since 2003. This change means that anyone with a valid claim for pain and suffering will face an inflated deductible of roughly $37,000 instead of the current $30,000 unless their pain and suffering award is assessed at more than the inflated vanishing deductible of roughly $123,000. While this change is arguably an attempt to adjust the previous deductibles to the level intended in 2003, it’s notable that the accident-benefit limits have all remained unchanged by inflation for the last 20 years.

by Darcy Merkur

See Full Story on lawtimesnews.com

Insurance Agency Singapore | Commercial Insurance and Personal Insurance