Charging For Your Rescue

By Author: Marcus Stalder
Total Articles: 491
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There's a new trend coming out of the financial problems faced by states. As it stands, the politics of balancing the budget says you cannot raise taxes so you have to cut public services. If you take the axe to services like the Fire Department or the ambulance service, how will they cover the cost of continuing to provide a service to the local community? Think carefully before you answer. This is the difference between you paying an extra dollar or so in local taxes and having no one come if your house is on fire. Except, of course, without the tax rise, the fire department would send a team and, if you could pay their fees and charges, they would put out the fire. As applied to drivers, let's take the New York Fire Department (FDNY) as a glimpse into the future.

The FDNY is proposing to charge drivers for coming to the scene of a crash and cutting the injured out of the wreckage. As it stands, such charges would not be covered in the standard insurance policy. Are we talking small amounts? Well, you judge. For responding to an accident where someone is hurt, the proposed charge is $490. If the vehicle catches fire ...
... but no one is injured, the proposed charge is $415. Should the FDNY come and only have to bend the vehicle into shape so it can be towed, this comes in at a more modest $365. Why make these charges? As it stands, the FDNY is having to close twenty of its companies at night. The money is not there to pay the staff. It's estimated these charges will bring in at least $1 million per year, given all the likely problems of collection. In fact, FDNY responded to 14,000 crashes last year which would have produced about $5.5 million if the department was able to collect an average of $400 per attendance.

Make no mistake, this is not a unique scheme. There are more than fifty Californian cities with crash-tax laws allowing the local government to recover the cost of responding emergency crews. For example, if you need a helicopter to evacuate you to a hospital in Sacramento, that's going to cost you (or your insurance company) $2,275. It's spreading across the country to cover the tax shortfall. As the Republicans argue, it should not fall to taxpayers to pay the clean-up costs of accidents they were not involved in. It should always be for the parties to pay for their own rescue. If you choose to drive, you should pick up all the bills.

So, when you start looking round for coverage, check out the laws in the places where you intend to drive. Then look carefully through the auto insurance quotes to see what, if any, rescue charges are included. Put this the other way around. If you are involved in an accident and the local fire department and ambulance service want payment for saving you, will you regret not reading the auto insurance quotes more carefully?