More than 600 city-parish employees will soon take a four-hour long driving safety course required every two years under an ordinance the Metro Council enacted two years ago in an attempt to reduce the amount of money Baton Rouge forks over for costly auto accident claims involving its employees.
But figures obtained by Daily Report show auto claims payments by the city-parish in recent years haven’t declined—but actually increased—throwing into question whether the $4-per-employee cost to Baton Rouge for the course is worth the investment.
“The numbers don’t look good,” admits Metro Councilman Buddy Amoroso, who spearheaded the initial drive to implement the course.
The claims are routinely on the Metro Council’s regular meeting agendas. In 2011, two years before the ordinance was approved, the city-parish paid more than $250,000 in auto accident settlements on 61 claims. In 2012, the number of claims jumped to 71, costing the city-parish $297,046. In 2013, the year the course was approved and implemented, claims fell to 55 and the payout declined to $190,352.
But last year, during the first full year of implementation of the ordinance, more claims were filed than any of those years—85—and the cost to the city-parish soared to $355,020.
Through June 15 this year, the parish attorney’s office recorded a total of $65,461 insurance claim payments on 26 auto accidents, less than one-third of the amount paid last year for the 85 accidents in which city-parish employees were at fault. However, the council is set to take up at its next regular meeting settlement payouts totalling $51,944. If approved, the claims would nearly double the year-to-date payments, but would still be less than the 2014 total.
Council administrator and treasurer Casey Cashio says the parish attorney’s office handles
insurance claims that come from people involved in driving accidents where city-parish employees in government-owned vehicles are at fault. Because the city-parish is self-insured, it pays for auto accident claims out of its own coffers.
Amoroso took the course himself back in 2013, and while he said then that it wasn’t “some giant pearl of wisdom” he gleaned, he described it as “a really good class” that reinforces good driving habits.
In addition to requiring the driver safety course, the ordinance passed in 2013 also detailed rules and requirements for city-parish drivers to ensure they use vehicles properly and safely. The course mandate does not apply to drivers who work for the fire and police departments, because they already have their own required safety programs.
Designed by the National Safety Council, the course is offered inside city training department classrooms and the certification is valid for two years upon completion. City-parish drivers who get into accidents are required to retake the course before the two-year certificate expires.
“I hope that 2013 was the high water point and we will start seeing decreases as time goes by,” Amoroso says. ”There is a lag period before you start seeing results. So far, 2015 numbers look good.”
See an interactive graphic detailing the number city-parish employee at-fault accidents in recent years, and how much it has cost taxpayers in insurance claims.
—Deanna Narveson
