Fort Worth Injury Attorney Blog

Now here's "good news:" The U.S. Department of Transportation reported that an estimated 32,788 people were killed on U.S. roads in 2010. This is a 3% decrease over the year before, and the lowest number of deaths since 1949 -- five years before I was born.

In the five state region that includes Texas, fatalities fell 6.8%, from 5,991 to 5,304.

Government officials attributed the decline to more people wearing seat belts, safer vehicles, and efforts to curtail drunk driving.

While these may be true, I would also attribute the decline to fewer people driving as many miles due to the recession.

And it could be suggested that 32,788 people dying -- think of Amon Carter stadium being about 2/3 filled -- on our highways is ridiculous.

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And a bill was filed that would raise our speed limit in Texas to 85 miles per hour on a lot of highways. Can you imagine what that will do to the death toll?

I believe that we should lobby our legislators to make our highways and streets safer, not more dangerous.

Let me know if you agree.

As our state legislature meets to consider stricter controls of our insurance companies, data just released show that Texas home insurers racked up some of the biggest profits ever last year.

No wonder. Our home insurance rates are the highest in the U.S. And only 48.4 per cent of premiums were paid out as claims. A loss ratio of 60% is considered profitable.

These companies collected a whopping $5.7 billion in premiums and only paid out $2.7 billion in claims.

And State Farm, the largest insurance company, continues to fight the state's order to refund hundreds of millions of dollars in overcharges to its customers.

Consumer groups are trying to get the law changed to require these companies to first get approval from the state before they up their rates.

I do not handle homeowners claims, but wanted to help disseminate this blatant abuse of the system.