Do I need to purchase rental car insurance?

If you’re traveling this summer, you may decide to rent a car for a road trip, or just to explore your vacation destination. When you rent a car, you have the option to purchase rental car insurance at the counter. Is this a good idea, or a waste of money? The answer is that it most likely depends on what kind of insurance you already have, if any. Some drivers absolutely need to buy rental insurance, but others don’t. And chances are you probably don’t need all of the coverages they offer.

Let us explain…

The different rental car insurance options

Liability coverage – Also known as “supplemental liability coverage.” Liability coverage is required in all states. This is the coverage that applies if you hurt someone or damage their property in an auto accident. If you have sufficient liability coverage on your personal auto policy, […]

E-Commerce means more truck traffic in NEPA

In the past decade, Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) has rapidly become a hub for e-commerce distribution.  E-commerce, or the ability to buy and sell items online, is quickly becoming one of the most popular and easiest ways for people to shop.  As a result, more tractor trailers carrying online purchases are on the road than ever before.  For this area especially, tractor trailer traffic has increased exponentially.  Distribution and fulfillment centers continue to pop up throughout the region—across Lackawanna, Luzerne Monroe, Wayne and Schuylkill Counties, there are over 30 industrial centers, each with their own small community of businesses.  Twenty-two industrial centers are located in Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties alone.

                Companies
with distribution and fulfillment centers located in this area include Walmart,
Amazon, Gatorade, PepsiCo, ABF Freight, Quaker Oats, and Hershey.  Currently, Chewy.com, Patagonia, and Adidas
are working on building their own fulfillment and distribution centers in the
area.  […]

Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month, 2019

May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month

Motorcycle riders are 38 times more likely to be killed in a crash than automobile occupants. In Pennsylvania, there were 3,053 people injured in motorcycle crashes in 2017, and 185 riders were killed.

As the weather warms up, more and more motorcycles will be on the roads. Now is the perfect time to be reminded about motorcycle safety.

For drivers

When you’re sharing the road with a motorcycle rider, there’s no room for carelessness. A momentary mistake or distraction on your part can spell devastation for someone on a bike in the lane next to you. What might result in a scratch or a fender-bender in an accident with another automobile could be a deadly collision when the other vehicle is a motorcycle. Simply follow the rules of the road, and keep these tips in mind:

Give motorcycles extra space and increase your following distance. […]

$29.4 million verdict in Johnson & Johnson talcum powder case

On Wednesday March 13, 2019 a California jury awarded Teresa
Leavitt $24.4 million and her husband, Dean McElroy $5 million in a trial
brought by them against Johnson & Johnson. 
Teresa Leavitt believes her mesothelioma, a terminal disease caused by
asbestos exposure, is linked to her regular use of Johnson & Johnson’s
talcum powder. 

The Leavitt case is the first case to be tried since a
bombshell report by Reuters and the New York Times about the contamination of
baby powder with asbestos.  Both reports
sighted leaked internal documents showing Johnson & Johnson knew about the
problem as far back as 1971.

Johnson & Johnson said they were disappointed in the verdict and they would pursue an appeal. Johnson & Johnson’s spokesperson, Kimberly Montagnino said, “we will pursue an appeal because Johnson’s Baby Powder does not contain asbestos or cause cancer.”  She also stated, […]

Phone-related driver distraction still on the rise

Cellphones have been a root cause of distracted driving since they first became popular in the 1990s.  However, cellphone manipulation while driving continues to change.  A 2018 study conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in Virginia found that drivers were 57% more likely to be found manipulating or using a cellphone than a survey conducted in 2014.  According to the IIHS, cellphone use was a contributing factor in over 800 crash deaths in the United States in 2017 alone.  But while drivers were less likely to be seen simply holding or talking on a cell phone in 2018 than 2014, they were more likely to be observed actually manipulating their phones.

                In 2014, only
2.4% of Virginia drivers were observed using their cellphones.  However, in 2018 this number rose to
3.4%.  This is compared to the 4.1% of
Virginia drivers observed talking on a cellphone in 2014, […]