WINNIPEG — Automobile insurance rates in Manitoba will dip slightly next year.
Manitoba Public Insurance has received approval from the Public Utilities Board to cut the average premium by one per cent.
The board has also ruled that there will be no premium rebate in 2009.
Rebates worth dozens of dollars to the average car owner have been issued in recent years, but the board says the depressed investment markets make such rebates unfeasible.
Have you been to a car dealer's showroom lately looking for a vehicle, or scanned the classifieds for a previously owned vehicle?
You might even be looking for a car being sold by the owner.
While cost has a great deal to do with your decision, so should safety ratings, miles per gallon in town and highway, the type of fuel the vehicle uses and how much the vehicle will affect your auto insurance payments.
In tight economic times, vehicle operating costs and safety factors should be as important as how clean the car looks or how fast it will go.
Here is a brief look at how you can help yourself make a better decision and how interconnected these items really are:
When you add a vehicle to your insurance policy, your new Vehicle Identification Number is one item you will provide to your insurer. While the VIN let's the insurer know about the year, make, model, it also allows the insurer to consider the safety rating of the vehicle, since protection against risk is what insurance is about.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (www.iihs.org) crashes vehicles and rates them to evaluate the risk to both the passengers and the vehicle itself. That information is just one factor in developing the cost of auto insurance for the vehicle.
IIHS has just released the top safety pick awards for 2009 vehicles for all categories from large cars, minivans and SUVs to the minicar category.
The VIN also provides information you can use even before you purchase a used vehicle. In many metro areas, a company called Car Checkers will provide an inspection to let you know the general condition of the vehicle.
Similarly, an on-line service called Car Facts (www.carfacts.
com) uses information from insurance companies and other sources will give you a history of the VIN as to accidents in which it was involved and other useful data.
Another method for understanding the current value for used vehicles is to view the Web sites of the National Automobile Dealers Association (www.nada.com) and/or Edmunds (www.edmunds.com), which gives a good comparison to the NADA information.
Additionally, the classified section of the newspaper, in print or on-line, provides another way to check on the value of the type of vehicle you are considering for purchase.
There's one more area of concern you should consider. The National Insurance Crime Bureau (www.nicb.org) allows you to check the VIN of a vehicle to determine whether it has been declared an unrecovered stolen or a total-loss vehicle.
Flooded vehicles became an issue of concern after recent hurricanes and other severe weather. If a vehicle has been declared a total loss from a traffic crash, fire or flood, some of these vehicles can find their way back into circulation through less than honorable means. It's very important to find out if the vehicle you are considering has been rebuilt and retitled.
The NICB provides one more data report that can influence your purchasing decision. It's the Hot Wheels report that lists the most stolen vehicles on an annual state-by-state basis. If you purchase a new or used car, knowing how popular the vehicle is with car thieves can save both time and money.
Keep in mind that services such as Car Checkers and CarFacts charge a fee whereas the NADA, Edmunds, the IIHS and the NICB do not.
And don't forget another excellent source for background information -- your insurance agent. With the day-to-day experience agents have, they can provide insight into particular makes and models of vehicles from a claims perspective.
Take the time to do the research before purchasing a new or used vehicle. The importance of an informed decision cannot be overstated when it comes to the hundreds or thousands of dollars involved in such a transaction. Neither can the safety factor be overlooked, since the vehicle is supposed to not only provide transportation but passenger safety in case of a traffic accident.
To know as much as possible about maintenance and repair costs for a specific vehicle as well as the mileage you should expect is also important since the initial cost is only the start. Overall costs for fuel, regular maintenance, the cost of auto insurance, the annual cost of tags and taxes all add up.
SALEM - Lawyers for popular Lawrence attorney Socrates De La Cruz and Haverhill chiropractor Troy Wheelwright proclaimed they had been exonerated of auto insurance fraud allegations yesterday after a judge dismissed their April indictments.
Superior Court Judge Howard Whitehead threw out the indictments after finding that prosecutors had failed to show probable cause that a crime had been committed.
De La Cruz, 34, of Methuen and Wheelwright, 40, of Amesbury were among eight area people indicted by an Essex County Grand Jury that determined they were part of a conspiracy to stage phony accidents to defraud insurance companies.
The indictments stem from an investigation initiated more than two years ago by the state attorney general's office, working with detectives of Lawrence's auto insurance fraud task force and investigators of the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts. That probe focused on four separate staged crashes that occurred between October 2002 and February 2003.
Harry Pierre, a spokesman for Attorney General Martha Coakley said the AG's office was "reviewing our options,'' in the wake of the dismissal.
"The court's decision reflects there was an absence of probable cause, and absence of evidence to charge Mr. De La Cruz with any of the indictments," said his defense attorney Hank Brennan.
"And in consequence, the court through its ruling dismissed all the indictments against Mr. De La Cruz," Brennan said.
Paul Cirel, lawyer for Wheelwright, also welcomed the decision. Wheelright is the owner of Haverhill Family Chiropractic at 606 Broadway, Haverhill.
"We told you he would be vindicated from day one," Cirel said.
Cirel noted that Whitehead had allowed the motions to dismiss because there was never any evidence his client and De La Cruz had committed a crime.
Similar motions filed on behalf of Michael Kaplan, 46, of Hampstead, N.H., operator of Kaplan Chiropractice, 200 Sutton St., North Andover, and Omar Castillo, 35, of Methuen, a runner and former van driver for Kaplan, were denied, Cirel said.
The dismissed indictments could raise defense attorney challenges for others being prosecuted by the attorney general's office. Among those indicted was Andover Attorney James C. Hyde, 56, of Boxford. He is a partner of the Andover law firm of Berger and Hyde.
This week's development represents the biggest setback in the area's five-year crackdown on auto insurance fraud which has led to 345 individuals charged so far.
"I haven't been officially notified, so I really don't have any knowledge," Lawrence Police Chief John Romero said last night.
It was Romero who assembled a fraud task force after the September 2003 death of a 65-year-old great grandmother from Lawrence who was killed in a staged crash that investigators said she helped plan to scam insurance companies.
Brennan, the defense attorney, said it was clear the judge's ruling showed the state attorney general failed to prove allegations against De La Cruz - allegations that the Essex County District Attorney had previously decided not to prosecute.
"Attorney De La Cruz would like to thank all the people throughout the community who have supported him, his friends, his family who believed in him and he would like to thank God for providing him with the guidance and faith that he has had throughout the entire course of this ordeal," Brennan said in an interview last night.
De La Cruz has been held up as a role model ever since he rose from a hard life on the streets of Lawrence to be honored as the 1991 National Youth of the Year by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. He later worked as a prosecutor in the Essex County District Attorney's Office before going into private practice.
How would you like to cut your car insurance in half? OnStar and GM are teaming up to reward customers for driving less.
Anyone who owns an OnStar-equipped GM vehicle and drives fewer than 15,000 miles a year can save up to 54 percent on their auto insurance.
The program tracks the mileage and forwards it to the customer's insurance provider by e-mail.
At least two insurance companies in Kansas are insuring motorists who hold foreign driver's licenses.
State law doesn't prohibit the companies from doing so, and supporters of the practice say it ensures that all drivers are protected in accidents.
But critics have raised concerns about road safety and national security.
Farmer's Insurance Group office manager Claudia Villatoro said she has been insuring motorists with foreign licenses, regardless of their legal status, for about a year.
"It's helping people," Villatoro said. "Every time they have an accident, they're covered."
State Farm also insures drivers who present valid foreign licenses, but gives policyholders 12 months to obtain a United States or Canadian driver's license, according to Tamara O'Connor, a public affairs supervisor for the company.
Those who do not show a valid U.S. license after that time risk not having their policies renewed, she said.
Under state law, all cars registered in Kansas must carry auto insurance. Drivers must show proof of insurance when filing for or renewing a vehicle's registration.
Critics, supporters
Members of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, which has chapters in Kansas, are among critics who said such insurance policies threaten national security.
Chris Simcox, the group's president, said he wonders how deeply insurance companies are probing motorists' backgrounds for criminal activity in other countries.
"How can they ensure the public safety?" he asked.
But Luis Figueroa, a legislative staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said insurance companies who offer such policies are in the best position to analyze the risk.
"We think this is definitely a positive sign, although we do think the Legislature needs to encourage people getting state driver's licenses," he said.
Figueroa said the driver's license application process requires people to be regularly tested on their driving skills and road knowledge, which encourages safe driving.
Figueroa has assisted local immigrant advocate groups who have lobbied in Topeka and in Wichita on such matters.
State Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, introduced legislation last session that would have cracked down on illegal immigrants by revoking business licenses and imposing civil penalties on any Kansas business found to have employed an illegal immigrant, among other proposals. The legislation was defeated.
She questions whether insurance companies are considering legal versus illegal status when deciding to insure such motorists. She wonders what qualifications insurance companies use to accept or reject motorists using a foreign driver's license.
"If they're in the country legally, then temporary insurance is not a bad idea," she said. "Having anyone uninsured on the road is wrong."
State requirements
Neither the Kansas Insurance Department nor the Kansas Department of Revenue, which oversees vehicle tags and registration, has policies that would prevent motorists with foreign driver's licenses from obtaining insurance in Kansas, spokespeople for both organizations said.
Immigrant advocate groups have routinely lobbied for illegal immigrants to have access to U.S. driver's licenses or a form of a license so they could insure their vehicles.
But a 2007 state law says driver's license applicants must have a Social Security number that is verified by the federal government, or another verifiable government ID, such as a visa or birth certificate.
Companies who issue insurance using a foreign-driver's license offer a reasonable solution, said Villatoro, of Farmers Insurance, because it's making sure all drivers are safe.
"I think it's better for them to be insured" than not, said Villatoro, who advertises the service in area bilingual and Spanish-language media. "It affects other people."
State Farm, which also sells the policies, said in an e-mailed response, "Although we recognize the immigration and national security concerns surrounding this issue, we do not believe it is appropriate that we take positions on issues that are outside our areas of expertise."
Being responsible
It's unclear how many vehicles in Kansas that are insured with a foreign driver's license have been registered with the state Department of Revenue's Division of Vehicles.
The division processed about 2.56 million vehicle registrations in 2006, according to the department's most recent report. In 2005, it processed about 2.53 million vehicle registrations.
Critics have said that issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants appears to reward them for breaking the law.
Larry Magill, executive vice president for the Kansas Association of Insurance Agents, is concerned about whether insurance companies are being responsible by offering such policies.
"Looking the other way on the immigration law violation in order to prevent somebody from driving without insurance, that doesn't seem to be a responsible way to address the issue in my opinion," Magill said.
The association hasn't dealt with the matter, Magill said, because it hasn't been brought up.
Magill said he wonders whether motorists insured using a foreign driver's license are familiar with U.S. traffic laws, such as which side of the street to drive on.
Simcox, with the Minuteman group, said his organization could consider lobbying lawmakers to pressure insurance companies to stop issuing such policies.
"This is another opportunity to close one of those loopholes," Simcox said.
