Car accidents are not something anybody likes dealing with. Paying a vehicle insurance deductible isn’t fun, nor is dealing with the physical repercussions of the event. Drivers now have something even more unpleasant to deal with. Have you ever heard of a crash tax?. Motorists involved in a vehicle crash away from home are billed by Emergency Services just for showing up at the accident.
Error is not an area of the crash tax
If only the crash tax worked like other taxes; you can file for some slack in several instances. If an individual, outside the tax jurisdiction he or she lives in gets in an incident and is checked out by emergency services – even without asking – that person gets a bill for it. The bill is often never gargantuan, but is far from being innocuous. Typically, it appears to be a couple of hundred dollars. A recent profile within the NY Times had a man charged $200. The Chicago Tribune had a story of a woman charged $350. Neither needed hospital visits. Both declined to be checked out by medics.
A few states won’t have it
States banning the crash tax are a growing minority, but a minority nonetheless. As outlined by Injuryboard.com, there are ten states that have restricted it. So far, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, also as Tennessee have outlawed the practice. However, often the decision isn’t made at the state level, but by municipalities. The practice, also called “resource recovery,” is used to get funds back from individuals that needed emergency services but did not pay taxes in that area. You will find 24 states that have it. The highest fees in crash tax bills are, of course, in California.
As if insurance policy covered it
If an individual declines medical assistance, an insurance policy business will not pay it. Insurance businesses and many other organizations oppose it.
Discover more info on this subject
NY Times
nytimes.com/2010/09/05/automobiles/05CRASHTAX.html?pagewanted=1 and _r=1 and ref=automobiles
Chicago Tribune
articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-03-02/business/ct-biz-0302-problem-locklin-20100302_1_billing-ambulance-services-emergency
Sacramento Injury Board
sacramento.injuryboard.com/automobile-accidents/can-crash-tax-help-to-reduce-the-rate-of-accidents.aspx?googleid=284322
