No-Fault lawyer gives statistics that show raising auto insurance rates is completely unnecessary
If I could ask Pete Kuhnmuench one question, it would be, “Why?”
Mr. Kuhnmuench is the spokesman for the Insurance Institute of Michigan, a lobbying group that represents 90 insurance companies doing business in Michigan, and one that has been threatening insurance rate increases for Michigan drivers after the Michigan Supreme Court corrected the state’s auto accident law in McCormick v. Carrier.
Within hours of McCormick, the insurance companies that he represents were threatening to raise auto insurance rates on Michigan drivers again, despite the record-breaking profits they continue to rake in each year in Michigan.
As a personal injury lawyer, and one that protects victims of car accidents and truck accidents, I have blogged about these unwarranted threats from Michigan insurance companies. There’s absolutely no reason whatsoever for auto insurance companies to raise No-Fault insurance premiums in Michigan. The numbers don’t lie.
Here’s the math:
* According to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Michigan’s 97.2 percent seat belt use is the highest in the U.S.
* In Michigan, there has been a 54 percent decrease in serious auto accidents.
* In a national survey done by Allstate called “America’s Most Improved-Motorists,” Allstate compared all three years of report data to identify cities with the most-improved drivers since 2005. A flock of Michigan cities landed in the top five slots, including: Sterling Heights, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Warren and in first place, Flint.
* With remarkable progress, Flint improved its average years between car accidents from 9.8 years in 2005 to 13.4 years or 25.4 percent better than the national medium for car accidents in 2007. Flint leaped from the number 73 spot in 2005 to number three overall in 2007 in three years based upon this dramatic fall in motor vehicle accidents.
* Michigan also has, at 1.37 traffic deaths per million vehicle miles, the lowest number of traffic accident deaths ever recorded.
* Finally, car accidents involving seniors in Michigan are now at their lowest levels since the 1960’s.
The numbers don’t add up, do they Pete?
Related information:
