I like to post everything I find about child auto safety. Today the Detroit Free Press reported on Michigan’s child booster seat laws.–Marty O’Neill, Insurance Agent

BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF • FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU CHIEF • March 26, 2008
LANSING — The big buckle of the law will get bigger to protect more kids on Michigan roads.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm is expected to sign a bill soon requiring car booster seats for children ages 4 through 7 who are less than 4 feet 9.

Current state law requires a car seat of some kind for children younger than 4.

“It’s more protection, something we should have done a long time ago,” said Sen. Michelle McManus, R-Lake Leelanau and sponsor of the bill.

McManus said a car booster seat costs between $10 and $25 but said the state can apply for a federal grant to give booster seats free or at a reduced cost to families that qualify based on their incomes.

The new law, effective July 1, would allow police to stop drivers for a booster seat violation alone, as a primary traffic offense. Fines would be $65.

Advocates of the bill say vehicle seat belts don’t properly fit across the smaller bodies of children, leaving them vulnerable to accident injuries from the belts themselves.

Booster seats raise children higher so seat belts fit snugly across their chests and hips, instead of their necks.

The strap-in seats reduced neck, spine and abdominal injuries for children ages 4-7 by 59%, according to a 2003 study by the American Medical Association.

Michigan would become the 39th state to require booster seats for children through age 7.

“I think it’s a fabulous idea. I think there should be a five- point harness required for kids up to 8,” said Christina Calderwood, 36, of Rochester.

She said her 5-year-old uses a safety seat rather than a booster seat, and he doesn’t complain.

“He knows race car drivers wear five-point harnesses,” Calderwood said.

Tara Bradshaw, 39, of Wyandotte said some parents will view the new law as a government intrusion. But Bradshaw said she uses a booster seat for her 4-year-old.

“When it’s a law, more people do it,” she said. “I don’t like the government telling me what to do, but I’m all for doing what’s necessary to keep my children safe.”

The issue was a topic Tuesday on the Free Press’ MotorCityMoms.com Web site, where most readers supported the new booster seat requirement.

Still, some questioned whether it would be a hardship to some families or merely was an attempt to muster revenue for police departments through more fines.

A 2006 national survey found that 58% of children ages 4-7 were restrained in booster or safety seats.

The state is planning a public awareness campaign for the new booster seat law through the Office of Highway Safety Planning.

More news! News in Michigan, as it relates to auto insurance, has been fast and furious. Below is an article from the Associated Press (AP) outlining yet another plan aimed at Michigan’s auto insurance coverage.–Marty O’Neill, Insurance Agent

By TIM MARTIN
The Associated Press

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — House Democrats plan to take another stab at changing Michigan’s auto insurance rules in an effort they say could make rates more affordable for those who need a break most.

The bills would eliminate the use of credit scoring in setting insurance rates. Democrats who support the legislation say allowing credit history to influence insurance rates is unfair and that rates should be based only on driving history — not on whether motorists have paid their bills on time. Democrats say the practice of using credit scoring as a factor in rates hurts low-income people the most.

“We need to rewrite Michigan law so it protects consumers,” said Rep. Bettie Cook Scott, a Democrat from Detroit.

The bills are scheduled to be taken up in the House Insurance Committee House on Thursday. While the legislation possibly could pass the Democratic-led House, it would face more resistance in the Senate, where Republicans hold the majority.

Rep. Virgil Smith, D-Detroit and chairman of the House Insurance Committee, acknowledged Tuesday that the Senate votes aren’t there to pass the bills at this point. But Smith said “anything could happen” late this year as the 2007-08 legislative session comes to a close during the so-called lame duck session.

The Insurance Institute of Michigan opposes the legislation. The organization says that the use of credit scoring benefits two-thirds of the state’s motorists and helps provide a more accurate reflection of risk when rates are set.

“If it’s designed to reduce insurance rates, it does just the opposite, frankly,” Insurance Institute of Michigan executive director Peter Kuhnmuench said of the legislation.
The legislation would give the state insurance commissioner more power to approve auto insurance rate increases before they take effect. Refunds could be ordered if it is determined consumers are overcharged or were discriminated against.

The legislation also would give policyholders more leeway to sue insurance companies for various violations of the state’s insurance code.

Auto insurers would have to report to the state how many claims are filed and how much money they pay out in several different categories. Insurers also would have to report how much they spend related to settling and defending themselves against lawsuits.

Rate increases could be made 90 days after those filings are made, unless those rates are challenged by the state insurance commissioner. Public hearings would be set on rate increases that are questioned.

The auto insurance bills are House Bills 4412, 4993, 5420, 5558 and 5559.

I like to make sure you are getting the latest information on auto safety and that includes auto thefts. Hazel Park is seeing a rash of thefts, mostly on running cars. Below you will find a Daily Tribune article from March 12, 2008–Marty O’Neill, Insurance Agent

By John Michalak
Daily Tribune Staff Writer
HAZEL PARK — Three vehicles were stolen in Hazel Park Monday and all the owners could be charged in connection with the thefts.

The owners left their vehicles running and unoccupied with keys in them. That’s a misdemeanor violation of a local ordinance, said Hazel Park Police Chief David Niedermeier, who again on Tuesday reminded residents about the law.

Niedermeier last year forewarned residents that police would charge persons when they saw cars running without anybody attending to them. The warning came when the city had a rash of vehicles stolen after residents warmed the vehicles.

“You can’t leave cars running and unattended,” Niedermeier said. “Obviously that’s what happened in these cases. It is a common ploy by car thieves to look for exhaust smoke.”

Instead of residents helping thieves, Niedermeier said they should take measures to reduce crime opportunity.

“The majority of property crime — and some violent crime — can be stopped simply by hardening the target,” Niedermeier said. “Don’t make yourself and your property easy targets. You don’t leave your valuables in plain view, your cars running or your bikes on the front lawn. And that’s the case regardless of what community you live in. Citizens can go a long ways in reducing crime rates by using common sense.”

In the most recent car thefts, one of the victims got her vehicle back after she saw it unoccupied at a gas pump at a Sunoco station on Eight Mile Road in Detroit.

The victim, Nicole L. Meier, 25, had reported her 2000 Pontiac Grand Am stolen shortly before 8 a.m. on West Milton.

Nearly two hours later she and her boyfriend spotted the vehicle at the gas station and called Hazel Park police. An officer stood by the vehicle as Meier went home to get another set of car keys. A clerk at the gas station told police he didn’t see the driver of the stolen vehicle.

“I don’t think I’ll ever do that again,” said Meier, adding she didn’t know warming her vehicle unattended is against the law. “I learned my lesson. It won’t happen again.”

Meier said she had a hunch her Pontiac Grand Am wouldn’t go far because the gas light came on the night before the theft.

“It didn’t have any gas so my boyfriend and I went around looking for it,” Meier said. “It ended up being at a gas pump at the Sunoco station five blocks away from my house. The car was in drive, but there was no damage to it.”

Since the thief kept her keys, Meier said she purchased a Club wheel lock for her car and changed the locks to her house.

Other vehicles stolen Monday were a 2001 Pontiac Grand Am on the 1000 block of East Pearl and a 1999 Pontiac Montana from the 300 block of East Milton.

Reprint from Detroit Free Press, March 7, 2008–Marty O’Neill, Insurance Agent

Gov. Jennifer Granholm said in a statement that Hollowell will tackle high insurance costs and predatory or illegal practices.

Hollowell, a former cochairman of the state’s Democratic Party, will start the job April 6. It pays about $120,000 a year.

Lawmakers and advocates say Detroiters are treated unfairly by insurers who charge high rates, especially for auto insurance.

Hollowell, 48, is general counsel for the Detroit Branch NAACP. He worked as a lawyer for Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004. That was cut short when Hollowell was arrested for picking up a prostitute near his home in Detroit.

The solicitation charge was dismissed.

This was in today’s Detroit Free Press–Marty O’Neill, Insurance Agent.

STATEWIDE: Auto insurance fee to drop in July
Michigan motorists will pay a little less for auto insurance in the coming year. On July 1, the assessment for the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association (MCCA) will drop by $18.57 to $104.58 per vehicle. The MCCA covers the costs of treating severely injured accident victims that exceed $420,000.

It’s the second straight year the assessment has decreased. The fee is charged to insurance companies, which pass on the cost to policyholders. It is charged to each vehicle.

Everyone likes their GPS System, Ipod, and Lap Top. However, the more interactive our cars become the bigger bulls-eye they have on them for thieves. These high tech, easy to lift, goodies are becoming mainstays on police reports. This article talks about the growing concern and some prevention tips for protecting your property–Marty O’Neill, Insurance Agent

© 2008 Buffalo News. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.

Pat Jensen never really got to know her global positioning system device.

Her children had bought a GPS unit for her in December because of what she admits is her “really bad sense of direction.”

On Jan. 5, while her son was visiting a friend on Mariner Street in Buffalo, someone smashed a window and broke into her Volkswagen Passat. The thief took the GPS device, her son’s video iPod, a Dell laptop and a $175 pair of sunglasses.

“I literally had just gotten it for Christmas. I had it in the car for just a day or two. I had used it one time. Bummer,” said Jensen, who is in her 40s and runs a nonprofit organization.

The Delaware District resident is a victim of the latest trend in car break-ins — GPS thefts.

Portable GPS receivers cost several hundred dollars or more and they were among the hottest consumer-electronic gifts of the recent holiday season.

So it’s no surprise that thieves are targeting them in car break- ins, police said, grabbing them right off the windshield or from glove compartments and other hiding places.

“The GPSs are just the item of the day, so to speak,” said University at Buffalo Police Chief Gerald W. Schoenle Jr.

Police in Buffalo, Amherst and Niagara Falls and at UB have seen a spike in thefts of these portable navigation units.

No longer satisfied with taking the car stereo, thieves are stealing GPS devices, cell phones, MP3 players and other electronic gadgets.

The Erie County Sheriff’s Office, for example, is investigating the thefts of six GPS units late Saturday and early Sunday in just one Clarence subdivision.

“It’s a target. It’s like leaving a bull’s-eye on your car. ‘Come steal me,’ ” said Patrol Chief Dennis Rankin.

Police are stepping up efforts to crack down on these break-ins, while cautioning users to be more aware of the potential for theft.

And some technology experts say the companies that make these devices need to do more to make it harder for thieves to resell or reuse them.

“As there is more crime, the manufacturers are going to step in,” said Ken Westin, founder of GadgetTrak, a company in Portland, Ore., that sells software that can be installed in electronic devices to help their rightful owners find them if they are stolen.

GPS devices were always popular with the technologically inclined, but last year they took off as a mainstream gadget.

About 6.5 million portable navigation devices were expected to be sold in this country in 2007, a sharp increase over the 2.1 million sold in 2006, according to the IDC market research firm.

GPS devices are becoming hot items for car thieves, too.

Police in Boston, Mass., suburban Miami, Lancaster, Pa., suburban Washington, D.C., Baltimore and northern New Jersey have seen an uptick in GPS thefts, according to recent news reports.

In Buffalo, 47 GPS units were reported stolen in 2007, and 19 were reported taken in the first six weeks of 2008 alone, according to a police database.

“I didn’t know this was going on. Now I’m afraid to leave anything in the car,” said Deanna Mesmer, a Grand Island resident and co-owner of a paper distributing company, whose GPS device was stolen Jan. 18.

Mesmer was at Mother’s restaurant on Virginia Place when her son called her cell phone to tell her someone had found her checkbook in the street and had called their house.

It turns out a thief had smashed the window of her Mercury Mountaineer and ransacked the SUV. The thief stole her $300 purse, an iPod, a camera and her GPS.

UB had 55 car break-ins on its two campuses in 2007 and 10 involved GPS units, said Schoenle, the police chief.

Since Sept. 1, 12 GPS units have been reported stolen in Amherst, town Police Capt. Enzio G. Villalta said.

“That seems to be the new hot item,” Villalta said.

Thieves will take anything of value, even change, but electronic devices are particularly desirable, police said, because they can be easily reused or sold for cash.

“These are all crimes of opportunity. It just takes a few seconds,” said Dennis J. Richards, chief of detectives for the Buffalo police.

A 2007 report from the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center — titled “Is There an iCrime Wave?” — argues that the proliferation of iPods and other electronic devices is boosting crime rates.

“They’re easy to resell, they’re easy to reuse, and they’re expensive. And they’re high-status,” said John Roman, senior researcher at the Washington, D.C.-based group, who co-wrote the study with Aaron Chalfin.

Some victims who spoke to The Buffalo News believe their cars were selected because thieves saw the GPS devices in their cars, or had reason to believe they were there.

“It’s an easy target. It’s right there on the windshield,” said Jean-Pierre Tran, 20, a Buffalo State College student who lives on Niagara Street.

He said he had stopped at his grandfather’s home on nearby Hampshire Street to take a quick nap after school on Jan. 18 when someone broke into his car to take the GPS device, his iPod and laptop.

Tran had had the GPS for a week. “It’s sad that I can’t leave anything in my car in the middle of the day,” he said.

Tamala Rohler, an Erie, Pa., resident, was in Buffalo with her family because her 12-year-old daughter’s hockey team was playing at Cazenovia Park rink.

She and her husband had purchased a $500 TomTom One in late 2006 after getting lost trying to get to a rink in Rochester.

On Jan. 27, the Rohlers had parked their minivan and had given their car keys to an attendant in order to get a key to a locker there.

After 2 1/2 hours inside, the Rohlers returned to find someone had stolen their GPS device, a cell phone, portable DVD player, an MP3 player and two digital cameras from their van.

“You feel so violated,” said Rohler, who said there was no sign of a break-in.

Many victims, like Tran and Rohler, had more than one device stolen, losing hundreds of dollars or more.

Some drivers have taken the GPS devices off and hidden them in glove compartments or elsewhere in the vehicle, but that’s not enough, police said; users should detach and hide the GPS holders, too.

“The bracket is an invitation — they have a GPS. Maybe they left it in the car, in the glove compartment, under the seat,” said Niagara Falls Police Capt. John P. DeMarco.

Police in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and at UB’s South Campus have boosted patrols in response to a rash of car break-ins, and UB hasn’t seen a car break-in so far this year.

The GPS manufacturers need to do more to make the devices harder to steal or reuse, said Westin of GadgetTrak and the Urban Institute’s Roman.

Westin noted that the companies that produce car radios responded to a rise in those thefts by introducing the removable radio face.

Preventing car break-ins and GPS thefts

• Park in a well lit area and always lock the doors and close the windows.
• Use an alarm system.
• Remove the GPS device from the vehicle, including the windshield mount. Don’t leave out in the open a purse, laptop or other potential prize for thieves.

* Register your unit with the manufacturer so if it is stolen you have a serial number. Sources: Insurance Information Institute; National Insurance Crime Bureau.