Figures

6,000

The number of personal and commercial policyholders along the Texas coast expected to be affected by State Farm Insur-ance Company decision to stop renewing policies for properties within 2,500 feet of coastal waters or bays, on barrier islands or peninsulas beginning next year.

The move will affect about 3,200 Galveston County policies, 780 in Harris County, 90 in Jefferson County and 79 in Chambers County, according to the company.

Policyholders will receive 60 days written notice before their policies are canceled. The cancellations will start with policies up for renewal in March.

State Farm will continue to sell new home insurance and windstorm coverage for homes more than a mile inland in coastal counties, but the homes will be required to get a building code certificate from the Texas Windstorm Insurance Associa-tion.

The Texas Department of Insurance is expected to carefully review State Farm’s move.

Source: Associated Press

750

The number of jobs expected to be cut in the latest round of layoffs by insurance brokerage Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. Announcing the job cuts, the company said it will also consolidate some locations and revamp its information technology structure to cut costs.

Marsh & McLennan, which has struggled with profitability since it changed operating procedures after New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in 2004 accused it of bid rigging, said the actions would save it roughly $350 million a year by the end of 2008.

The 750 job cuts come on top of some 5,000 layoffs Marsh had made previously in the fallout of the Spitzer probe.

According to the company, the plan will result in charges of about $225 million over the next three years. Roughly 15 percent of the charges will be recorded this year, about 55 percent in 2007, and 30 percent in 2008.

Marsh & McLennan said it expects the savings to come in areas including finance, human resources and procurement.

Most of the job cuts will occur in the company’s Marsh insurance unit and Mercer Human Resource Consulting arm, a company spokeswoman said. The New York-based company employs roughly 55,000 workers in more than 100 countries.

Source: Associated Press

230

The percent increase in the last 10 years in the number of fatalities among motorcycle riders who are 40 years of age or older, according to Umesh Shankar of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Fatalities are also on the rise for seniors on hogs, according to Shankar.

As riders get older, motorcycles get bigger. The number of 50-plus riders killed in a crash involving a bike with a 1,001-1,500 cc engine rose 540 percent in the past decade, Shankar said.

Alcohol continues to kill motorcycle riders. Of those who died in a solo crash in 2004, 41 percent had a blood alcohol concentration above the legal limit of .08 percent.

Ted Miller, a safety economist with the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, blames the rise in motorcycle deaths on plummeting helmet use.

At one time almost every state required all motorcycle riders to wear helmets, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Now, only 20 states and the District of Columbia require riders to wear protective helmets, according to the institute, which is funded by the insurance industry.

Source: Associated Press

Topics Texas Auto