It Figures

3,500
The number of problems that federal railroad officials said they found with CSX Corp. railroad properties in 23 states, in a probe started in response to a series of accidents involving the company’s trains. The Federal Railroad Administration’s inspection, conducted over four days in January after a derailment on Jan 16 in East Rochester, N.Y., recommended that CSX be fined for 199 violations, including failure to replace defective rails, failure to make repairs and improper handling of hazardous materials. CSX said its safety record has been improving with an overall 24 percent reduction in train accidents last year.

$8.7 million
The value of compensation received by Michael G. Cherkasky, president and chief executive of Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc., the nation’s largest insurance brokerage, last year, according to a regulatory filing analyzed by The Associated Press. Cherkasky received $1 million in salary, $2.65 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation and $45,030 in “other” compensation, mainly company contributions to his retirement plan. He also was awarded stock and options valued at $5 million when they were granted.

$17.5 million
The amount the insurer behind the performance bond for part of the troubled Interstate-84 construction in Connecticut will pay to settle claims involving installation of defective drains, according to an agreement worked out with state officials. The payment from United States Fidelity & Guaranty on behalf of L. G. DeFelice, Inc. allows the state to begin repairing the drains along a three-mile stretch in Cheshire and Waterbury.

3,500
The number of drivers Virginia police stopped for traffic violations during a statewide crackdown along Interstate 64 over Friday and Saturday a few weeks ago. Virginia State Police’s “Operation Air, Land & Speed” safety initiative targeted more than 200 miles of the state artery. Violations ranged from speeding to reckless driving and driving without a seatbelt.

$9,800
The so-called “tort tax” paid by every American family to pay for the nation’s legal system, according to a new study released by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in San Francisco. The total $865 billion cost of the U.S. legal system is 27 times more than the federal government spends on homeland security and 13 times what the U.S. Department of Education spends to help educate America’s children. The costs include not just the direct cost of annual damage awards, plaintiffs’ attorney fees, defense costs, and administrative costs from torts but also the indirect cost of the legal system’s impact on research and development spending, the cost of defensive medicine, the related rise in health care spending and reduced access to health care, and the loss of output resulting from deaths due to excess liability.

Topics USA