I'm Making Your Insurance Rates Skyrocket

As a collision victim, a headline caught my eye: "Payouts For Pain And Suffering Keep Premiums Soaring, Says Insurance Bureau". This past week, a report was release saying essentially the same thing.

Nothing like some good old fashioned victim blaming to drive the narrative.

I was hit in July while riding my bicycle. While no bones were broken, I sustained some big hits to my legs and lower back. Miraculously, my neck and head were saved from immediate damage. Wear your helmet, kids.

The issue was soft tissue damage, and I suffer to this day. I have been regularly attending physiotherapy since the fall -- the delay brought on by a confusing-to-navigate compensation system, with mounds of paperwork and emails circulated before I got my first appointment. Alongside these sessions, I have had to buy tools for at-home therapy, also at the expense of their insurance company. So, yup. I'm one of the people apparently raising the premiums. Most of this is paid for by my own insurance through work, and the rest is covered by their insurance -- that's how the system works. When my insurance runs out, theirs will take over. I don't see stopping any time soon, because I notice the difference when I take a "break". It hurts.

Naturally, the victims are being blamed. People are trying to cap the benefits I take advantage of to keep moving like I did before the accident.

If I could take it back, you bet I would. I wish I didn't have to check in with a physiotherapist every other week, making sure my body is healing properly over half a year after the collision.

It would be naive to think people aren't taking advantage of the system through any variation of insurance fraud. Auto repair fraud is well documented in Canada , and likely happening in NL. Every cent affects the system like a pebble in a pond. People are also likely fraudulently claiming soft-tissue damage, as well. So, yes -- this is likely driving up premiums.

Right now, taxi drivers are also having a hard time. There is seemingly no mercy for them. "Drive safer", people are telling them. But, nobody seems to be accounting for their own driving habits.

A few weekends ago, St. John's saw ten collisions in one weekend. One was fatal. There were a few drunk drivers on the roads, of course. It was an anomalous weekend, but tallies of at least three and up are not uncommon. This is excluding the multiple vehicular accidents across the province.

We blame government for not fixing the roads, or demand better signage. We say bike riders shouldn't be on the black top, or pedestrians need to wear brighter clothing. We say there needs to be more police on our highways enforcing speed limits. These are all valid observations, but missing from the conversation each and every time is personal accountability. St. John's dealerships are selling more jeeps and trucks than ever before. More people are driving in more powerful vehicles than ever before, with more potential distractions. Getting a license is laughably easy, with no check-ins after the fact until you are a senior -- and that's assuming people are licensed while they drive.

You know what would keep our rates down? Fewer cars on the road. Better driving. Slower driving. Common sense in bad weather. Paying attention to the signage currently in place. Yielding right-of-ways. Watching out for pedestrians -- not slowing down to let them jaywalk, but to follow the rules of the road and not run them down.

Basically, before we cap pain and suffering insurance for people who need it, let's collectively agree to stop hitting other road users with our massive transportation machines.