It Figures

$25.2 Billion

Amount U.S. property/casualty insurers expect to pay homeowners and businesses for 2008 property losses from 37 catastrophes — the fourth highest cost in a decade and the highest frequency in a decade, according to preliminary analysis by ISO’s Property Claim Services Unit. PCS estimates that insurers paid 3.9 million catastrophe claims for damage in 40 states. About 2.7 million personal lines claims accounted for 64 percent of the $25.2 billion loss, 340,000 commercial lines claims accounted for 27 percent of the total loss, and 876,000 vehicle losses accounted for 9 percent.

$2.9 Million

Amount awarded by a jury to a Wilmington, Delaware contractor who was injured at a Home Depot store when a stack of 18 wooden doors fell from a shelf above him. Thirty-two-year-old Ronald Payne was injured in 2001 at the store in Christiana. Payne’s attorney, James Hall, says Payne needed two operations on his back but neither could fully repair the injuries and he still can’t work. Hall says Payne suffers from depression, has lost his home to foreclosure and is separated from his wife. The jury award was three times larger than the amount suggested by Payne’s attorney.

78,000

Number of traffic tickets issued last year by state troopers in Connecticut last year – a 16 percent increase over 2007. The rise in tickets has put an additional $327,000 in the state’s dwindling coffers. Tickets carry $123 to $371 in fines, and can range even higher for truck drivers caught speeding, and for drivers speeding in school and construction zones.

10%

Percentage of Delaware drivers who are uninsured – a number expected to rise. The Insurance Research Council blames the economic downturn for the already high number and predicts the number of uninsured drivers in Delaware and across the country may hit an all-time high as unemployment numbers rise. Maryland, at 12 percent, is the only other state in the region with a double-digit percentage of drivers without insurance. New Jersey’s figure is 8 percent, and Pennsylvania’s is 7 percent. Nationally, the state with the highest percentage of uninsured drivers is New Mexico, with 29 percent. Massachusetts has the lowest percentage, just 1 percent.

1

Number of lit candles that sparked a blaze that eventually displaced a dozen people and caused $900,000 of damage to a condo complex in Silver Spring Maryland last month. Investigators believe a resident knocked over the candle while hanging up a coat.