Published: August 22, 2008 05:33 pm            

Five ways to helpful information

Five national organizations, funded in large part by insurers, provide considerable research and data collection to help homeowners, motorists, renters and small business owners make the right decisions. Yet none are household names, but they can help save lives and property?

Planning on buying a vehicle? The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety can help you know how safe a vehicle is and how it will protect you and your passengers. This organization is best known for crash-testing vehicles, but its overall mission is dedicated to reducing the losses — deaths, injuries and property damage — from crashes on the nation’s highways. Vehicles are rated for their safety features and ability to protect passengers.

Its sister organization, The Highway Loss Data Institute, provides scientific studies with insurance data to document the human and economic losses resulting from the ownership and operation of different types of vehicles, and by publishing insurance loss results by vehicle make and model. That helps insurers rate vehicles for their safety and crashworthiness. Just this week, IIHS released new crash test results for four small SUVs.

Here’s a very important site especially as tropical storms threaten coastal Georgia and other nearby states. It’s all about ways to protect you and your family. The Institute for Business and Home Safety’s mission is to reduce the social and economic effects of natural disasters and other property losses by conducting research and advocating improved construction, maintenance and preparation practices.

While IIHS crashes cars and trucks, IBHS crashes home structures. It studies how high winds affect the integrity of homes as well as their ability to withstand pounding rains, hail and the impacts of trees, branches, metal objects and other materials flying through the air during severe weather.

The next organization, like IBHS, provides a wealth of information to protect you and your family from both natural and man-made disasters. How-to documents, preparation lists and great advice are all at your fingertips.

The Federal Alliance for Safe Homes is dedicated to promoting disaster safety and property loss mitigation. Its programs promote life safety, property protection and economic well-being by strengthening homes and safeguarding families from natural and man made disasters.

Finally, here’s a group that provides ways to protect your vehicles from theft, and it can help you avoid buying a used vehicle that turns out to be stolen. You can also view an annual list of the most popular stolen vehicles by state and metro area.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau is dedicated exclusively to preventing, detecting and defeating insurance fraud and vehicle theft through information analysis, investigations, training and public awareness.



On the Web

Check out these Web sites. Each provides the public with considerable information that’s easy to read and very helpful during dangerous situations from traffic crashes to hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, wildfires and even more sinister events.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and The Highway Loss Data Institute: www.iihs.org

The Institute for Business and Home Safety: www.ibhs.org

Federal Alliance for Safe Homes: www.flash.org

The National Insurance Crime Bureau: www.nicb.org



David Colmans is executive director of the Georgia Insurance Information Service. Contact him at (770) 565-3806 or by e-mail at dcolmans@giis.org.

        

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