September 2009 

By Thomas H. Chappell 

Even insurance agents and their families need insurance. This was proven to me vividlywhen my 82-year-old mother-in-law was involved in an auto accident caused by anuninsured motorist.I have been an aviation insurance specialist for more than 34 years. I must admit that myinsurance skills are focused on the aviation industry and less on other lines of insurance.That is why my agency has on staff a large group of property and casualty specialists towork with the aviation division in servicing our clients’ total insurance needs. It is to thisend that I have personally benefited.Ada Bridges, one of the senior account executives in our Private Client Group, handlesmy mother-in-law’s insurance. Like most insurance buyers, I really did not know whatmy mother-in-law had in the way of coverage. Frankly, I had never thought of UninsuredMotorist protection as a very significant area of insurance. Boy, was I wrong!As I mentioned, a young man turned in front of my mother-in-law’s vehicle causing thecrash. At 82, you really don’t need to take the impact of a head-on collision. The resultwas a broken back, a broken leg, a broken heel, six days in intensive care, three weeks inthe first hospital, and a move to another hospital for a long recovery and rehabilitation.This is just the beginning. She also endured the long and boring convalescence and moreweeks in an assisted living facility before returning home to some semblance of a normallife. The entire process took almost four months and will restrict this little lady’s qualityof life forever. That quality of life money can’t buy.The medical bills are also a big thing. Even though she was not at fault, the doctors andhospitals want to be paid for their services. If the guilty party can’t pay, it falls to theinjured party. Fortunately, Mrs. Bridges did her job well. She included $500,000 ofUninsured (and Underinsured) Motorist coverage on my mother-in-law’s familyautomobile policy. I wondered for a while if this seemingly generous limit would beadequate, especially when we received the first invoice of $91,000 for six days ofintensive care. The cost of medical care is high and best left for another discussion.The lesson learned here is the true value of seemingly small or insignificant coveragesthat can be endorsed onto your more traditional insurance policies.Uninsured Motorist CoverageLearn from my experience. It seems simple and almost unnecessary, but UninsuredMotorist coverage should not to be overlooked. This is a coverage that is available inmost states as a part of the family automobile policy. Although policy wording varies bystate, for our discussion, we will say most policies are very similar. Uninsured Motoristand Underinsured Motorist coverage extend your family automobile liability insurance torespond in the event you are injured by an uninsured (or underinsured) motorist. Usuallydrivers that carry inadequate limits of liability also have very small personal assets.Therefore, these drivers are unable to pay for the damage or injuries they cause.

Why Do Drivers Go Uninsured or Underinsured?The Uninformed

It is worth noting that several high risk insurance companies advertise and sell only staterequired financial minimum limits. These limits are usually very low. Although thesecompanies put drivers in compliance, the companies also cause many drivers to assumethey are well insured, not realizing how inadequate their limits really are. These wellmeaning, responsible drivers are significantly underinsured, leaving buyers of adequateinsurance to rely on their Uninsured Motorist coverage for protection.

Not All Are Well Meaning

Was my family’s experience unusual? Not at all. (Now, I can get on my soapbox aboutillegal immigrants and other members of our society who ignore rules and laws incomplete disregard for right and wrong.)I am told by automobile insurance company personnel that uninsured motorist claims areon the rise. The “I’m not responsible for my actions” mentality is prevalent. Themajority of illegal immigrants don’t buy insurance nor do they comply with statefinancial responsibility laws. They often don’t even have valid driver’s licenses. If theyinjure someone in an automobile accident, there is no recourse for the injured party.Once again, the responsible segment of our society must pay for the actions of theirresponsible. Whether caused by an illegal immigrant or an irresponsible citizen whojust ignores the law and doesn’t buy insurance, there is little hope of recovery ofeconomic loss. The ranks of the irresponsible are growing, and that is why such claimsare becoming more prevalent.Once it is determined that there is insufficient coverage by the at-fault party, yourUninsured Motorist insurance will be activated. Depending upon the insurance companyand the state, your company will pay for medical expenses, disability, and, in some cases,pain and suffering. The company may also provide lost income, future earnings, and lossof life payments. Rarely will Uninsured Motorist coverage pay punitive damages.When you purchase Uninsured Motorist coverage, you are essentially buying liabilityinsurance for other drivers who are uninsured or underinsured. In most cases,policyholders could expect their coverage to give them a similar result as filing a thirdpartyliability claim.If the negligent, uninsured party has sufficient assets, the insurance company may requireyour support in subrogating, in an attempt to recover the money it spent in handling yourclaim.The second lesson you can learn from my family’s experience is to buy increased limitsof Uninsured Motorist coverage. Now that we have had this experience and I have had afirsthand look at the cost of emergency medical care and the cost of convalescence, I cantell you that $500,000 in Uninsured Motorist coverage is not enough. Most companiesmatch your Uninsured Motorist coverage limit to the limit of the liability insurance youcarry. Here I must recommend a personal umbrella of at least $1 million in excess ofyour primary automobile liability limit. You can then raise your Uninsured Motorist limitup to the limit of your umbrella. (Some companies don’t offer Uninsured Motoristexcess limits of liability. Some companies restrict the excess liability limits to $1million).Not enough? Buy a bigger umbrella. Many insurance companies will sell you a $5million umbrella for a very reasonable premium. You need the increased liability limitanyway. After all, you would not be comfortable with low limits of aircraft liabilityinsurance. Why would your automobile exposures be any different? I still believe youare at higher risk of an accident in your automobile than in an aircraft.I know this is a bit off the subject of aviation insurance. It is a different type of messagethan you are accustomed to hearing from me. Call it a public service announcement. Ifyou don’t know for sure, I believe you should stop right now and check to see if you haveadequate limits of Uninsured Motorist coverage on your automobile policy. Don’t leave home without it.( aviationinsurance.com ) 

The January 2009 ditching of the US Airways flight in the Hudson River was a rare combination of a spectacular plane crash that generated massive worldwide attention without killing anyone. 

The plane went down as a result of a midair collision with a flock of geese shortly after takeoff from New York's La Guardia Airport. For aviation safety organizations involved with dealing with the threat of bird strikes, among them Bird Strike Committee USA, the US Airways ditching in New York was an important event because the accident will very likely lead to industry wide changes in regulations and procedures associated with bird and wildlife hazards. 

This event also served as an excellent example of how popular social media applications like Twitter and YouTube affect how the public finds out about plane crashes. It also shows that any organization that wants to play a significant role in any public debate about bird strike hazards should aggressively use these and other social media tools to help educate and inform the public. 

While the accident took place on the doorstep of the most important media center in the United States, many of the early images from the crash came not from the media, but from witnesses. One of the most well known photos was from a cell phone camera of Janis Krums, a passenger on one of the ferry boats that helped to rescue passengers and crew. The picture was uploaded from the passenger's iPhone to TwitPic, a service that allows Twitter users to upload photos (see photo on TwitPic). 

Twitter wasn't the only social media application working overtime that day. Video sharing sites like YouTube were flooded with user-generated content that collectively had hundreds of thousands of views within a day. 

If social media applications like Twitter didn't exist, a plane crash in New York City would still get massive amounts of attention from the major media. However, the "Miracle on the Hudson" accident also showed how an average eyewitness of a dramatic news event like a plane crash can easily distribute images and other newsworthy information that could reach tens of thousands in a matter of minutes. 

Until recently, one of the few options for online publishing was through a web site. Ten years ago, AirSafe.com helped launch the Bird Strike Committee USA web site, Birdstrike.org. One of the stated purposes was to have the site act as a resource for the media and the general public, especially if there were an event like as a bird strike-related crash. 

Even in the days before Google, search engines were the most important way that users could locate information online. Because the birdstrike.org web site had been active for many years, and because it included a wide range of bird strike related information, the site was often among the top results for many bird and wildlife strike related searches. Because of this, major media organizations were able to find basic information about bird strikes and to contact many of the key Bird Strike Committee USA members, and as a result many of these members were able to provide insights and information to a broad audience in the hours after the crash. 

It used to be that you only needed a solid web site, or perhaps a blog to keep an online audience informed. This approach is no longer good enough. You need more than web sites and blogs to keep in touch with an audience, because that audience is using emerging social media tools to develop different kinds of ongoing relationships with other users, and to find news and other information. 

For an example of the differences between the Internet of today, and the Internet of a few years ago, one just needs to look at the online realities of two New York area plane crashes, TWA Flight 800 in 1996 and the 2009 Hudson River ditching involving US Airways. Flight 800 happened in July 1996, just two weeks after AirSafe.com was launched. While there were many web sites like AirSafe.com that provided information on the crash, web sites controlled by major media organizations like CNN and the BBC were by far the most important sources of information for news about the crash. 

In 1996, there was no YouTube, Twitter, Blogger, Facebook, Flickr, or any other easy to use tools for sharing photos, videos, and other information online. While AirSafe.com had plenty of information about Flight 800, the site had only a tiny impact on the public's awareness of the accident, with only about 35 visits on the day of the crash. 

In contrast, within minutes of the US Airways ditching on the Hudson, there were thousands of people around the world who were contacting each other on Twitter, uploading videos to YouTube, and photos to Flickr. True, much of it was simply copied from traditional news organizations, but some of it was both original and unique. In many cases, traditional media relied on the public for information rather than the other way around. By the way, traffic on AirSafe.com was a bit higher in 2009 than it was in 1996, with about 12,000 web site visits on the day of the event, plus at least 5,000 views or downloads of AirSafe.com's initial podcast about the crash. 

The changing nature of the Internet, and the dramatic rise in the importance of newer social media applications, makes it necessary for organizations like Bird Strike Committee USA to expand its relationship with the Internet. Fortunately for the Committee, there are many examples of social media use that can be followed, and most of them require no up front or ongoing costs. Perhaps the most pressing needs are in the following three areas: first, a review of existing web site policies and content to ensure that the site continues to rank well for key wildlife hazard related search terms. Second, development of policies or guideance for the use of evolving social media applications, to better coordinate public education and public outreach efforts. Third, encouraging the use of these same social media technologies among the organizations that support the work of the Committee. 

While the early development of an informative web site was an innovation that put Bird Strike Committee USA well ahead of similarly structured aviation safety organizations, recent events have highlighted the fact that adopting at least some of the newer social media technologies is essential if Bird Strike Committee USA is to maintain its relatively high online profile. 

For additional information about Bird Strike Committee USA, and about bird strike-related issues, please visit birds.airsafe.org. 

Selected Social Media Applications Used by AirSafe.comYouTubeFacebookTwitterFlickrPodcast (main page)Podcast (subscription)Mailing ListPrlog.org (online press releases)Bird Strike BlogCrash Video Blog