Figures

3.3%

The voluntary market rate increase for industrial risks being sought by Virginia workers’ compensation carriers. Rates for surface coal mines could rise an average 4.8 percent. The request was filed on behalf of insurers by the National Council on Compensation Insurance Inc. with an effective date of April 1, 2008, for both new and renewal policies. NCCI has also proposed premium levels decreases for the federal and underground coal mine classes in the voluntary and assigned risk markets. An Oct. 30 hearing has been scheduled.

$34 million

The value of the life insurance policy left by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell to the college and church he founded, ridding the financially troubled Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., of its debt. Most of the payment, $29 million, went to Liberty, which Falwell founded in 1971, and the rest was given to Thomas Road Baptist Church, Liberty Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said. His minister father died in May at age 73.

26,126

The number of tickets Alabama state troopers issued in a five-day statewide crackdown aimed at reducing speeds and preventing highway deaths. The troopers wrote 11,931 tickets for speeding and 4,995 for seat belt or child restraint violations. Some 17,991 arrests described as hazardous were made.

72%

The rise in on-the-job fatalities in West Virginia last year. Seventy-nine workers were killed on the job in 2006, up from 46 in 2005. It was the highest total for the state since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ fatality census was first conducted in 1992. Highway accidents continued to be the top on-the-job killer, accounting for 16 deaths, compared with 15 the year before. Explosions accounted for 13 state workplace deaths, including 12 in the Sago mine disaster in January 2006 in Upshur County. Nine workers died on the job from fires. Seven workers died after being struck by objects, up from five in 2005.

904

The number of claims State Farm Insurance Co. has re-evaluated since agreeing in April to voluntarily re-evaluate Mississippi Hurricane Katrina slab cases. As of Aug. 13, the company said 934 affected Mississippians requested re-evaluation of slab claims. Of those requests, State Farm reevaluated 904 claims and made an additional $23.7million in settlement offers to those policyholders. The company has paid out $13.9 million to 552 policyholders who have accepted the offer.