09/27/10

Insurance Coverage for Bed Bugs?

Bed bugs are all over the news lately, showing up in places other than bedrooms.    It is believed that due to the rise in international travel and the use of less toxic pesticides, bed bugs have been making a comeback.  These little creatures are easy to pick up and difficult to remove. 

Experts say that a national infestation of bed bugs has rolled into Portland and calls to pest controllers have nearly tripled in the past two years.  If you don’t have bed bugs now, there is a high likelihood you might some day.  While bed bugs don’t spread disease and are not a threat to public health, they are tops in the nuisance category.

To make matters worse, a typical homeowners insurance policy would NOT cover an infestation of bed bugs.  Most standard homeowners policies contain an exclusion for damage from birds, vermin, rodents or insects.  The same is true on a commercial property policy which excludes damage caused by nesting or infestation by insects, birds or rodents. 

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09/08/10

Driver Fatigue

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) calculates that drowsy or fatigued driving causes approximately 100,000 police-reported crashes and kills more than 1,550 each year.  Just last week a client of EPB&B experienced just such an accident when the driver fell asleep while operating a commercial vehicle.  His vehicle left the road and impacted two other vehicles before coming to rest along side of the highway.  All of the vehicles in the accident sustained major damage and several injuries (including the driver) were reported.

Recent research suggests that driver fatigue is under-represented in accident statistics and estimates show that it could be a contributing factor in 20 – 24% of fatal crashes.  A study conducted by the Adelaide Center for Sleep Research demonstrated that drivers who have been awake for 24 hours have an equivalent driving performance to a person with a BAC (blood alcohol content) of 0.1 and are seven times more likely to have an accident.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that there are 56,000 sleep-related road crashes annually in the US, resulting in 40,000 injuries and 1,550 fatalities.

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09/07/10

The Homeowners Policy & College Students

QUESTION:  “Is a computer provided by my daughter’s school for use while she is attending college covered for theft out of her locked room while she is out of the room”?

 

Toward the end of the school year, someone came through her suite-mate’s room, through the bathroom, and into my daughter’s room and stole the computer she had signed out to her by the school.  I just received a letter from the school stating that she had to pay $1,600 before she would be allowed to return to school.  Does my homeowner’s insurance pay for such a loss? 

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