I-Team Extras: The Unsafe Skies Over South Florida
Mar 15, 2009 12:23 am US/Eastern
I-Team: What Cities Charge For Car Accidents?
HIALEAH (CBS4 I-TEAM) ―
A South Florida community is charging people fees for getting into a motor vehicle accident. It's part of a growing trend, both in Florida and around the country. Supporters say it helps with the tight budgets from tough economic times, but others are calling it a "double tax."
When the call goes in for Hialeah Fire Rescue to rush to an accident scene, the person responsible for the accident will pay in more ways than one. Faced with higher costs and tighter budgets, Hialeah Fire started charging motor vehicle accident fees in 2006.
"There continues to be more and more pressure on the budgets," Hialeah Fire Chief Otto Drozd said, "and several years ago we saw the economic times and how they were evolving."
A crash with no injuries will cost the at-fault driver $435. When hand tools are used to pull someone from a car and they go to the hospital by ambulance, the fee jumps to $650. If the Jaws of Life are used to pry someone from a vehicle, it will cost $1800 dollars, and if a helicopter landing zone is needed, the fee can top $2100 dollars.
All those fees are charged to the person's auto insurance company. In the premiums you pay for auto insurance, there are provisions to pay for motor vehicle accidents that rightfully the fire department can collect. In some places across the U.S.A., there is an outpouring of people beginning to dispute that view; the fees have even been lampooned by famous comedian Jay Leno.
Locally, the fees remain largely under the radar. Several insurance agents the
CBS4 News I-Team called had not even heard of motor vehicle accident fees.
Hialeah fire collected $197,000 in such fees in the 2007-2008 fiscal year. The chief compares the whole idea to your water service. "You have all the infrastructure: the pipes and underground things there to deliver water, but when you turn on the tap, you pay for the water. This is just like that."
At one Hialeah accident scene, Jose Gutierrez narrowly avoided being hit by a speeding motorcycle. He asked an obvious question about the accident fees, "Doesn't the taxpayer pay for that? I mean the fire department. Isn't that covered by taxpayer expense?"
A Florida Senate review last fall found four counties and eight cities had accident fee ordinances in place, though Hialeah is the only one right now in South Florida.
Fee debate aside, Chief Drozd reaffirmed one promise, "When you call, we go out."
Not everyone is on board for the fees, locally and at a national level. At least five states have banned such fees. Still, one Florida lawmaker
I-Team Reporter Michael Williams talked with says that at least for now, there is nothing in the works here to stop the trend.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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