Washington Insurance Commissioner, Mike Kreidler, “fined four Geico insurance companies a total of $120,000 for using an unapproved scoring model to evaluate and offer personal auto coverage to consumers in 2004″ according to a press release on the Insurance Commissioner’s website.

Kreidler said the four companies failed to comply with changes in insurance-scoring requirements – including the use of credit history – enacted by the 2004 Legislature. The result was that during a five-month period ending in November 2004, a total of 24,000 policies were evaluated under an unapproved insurance scoring model in violation of the newly enacted law.

Geico says “the companies consideration of credit history adversely affected only 904 of the 24,000 policyholders scored under the unapproved model.” But Kreidler responded that, “although only a small percentage of policyholders were adversely affected, the fact remains that 24,000 policyholders were subjected to an illegal process.”

The four Geico companies have signed a consent order, agreeing to pay the fine and comply with filing requirements and insurance scoring legislation.

This did not just affect people getting quotes from Geico. Even if ‘only’ 904 policyholders were ‘adversely’ affected, Geico’s use of this credit scoring technique to select the lowest risk customers, put every other insurance company in Washington that was following the rules at a disadvantage.

The statements below are supposed to be taken from actual insurance accident claims forms turned in by claimants. They are supposed to be true (I don’t think you can make this kind of stuff up). Read them and laugh. And be glad it wasn’t you.

• The pedestrian ran for the pavement, but I got him.
• The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.
• I was sure the old fellow would never make it to the other side of the road when I struck him.
• To avoid hitting the bumper of the car in front I struck a pedestrian.
• The pedestrian had no idea which way to run as I ran over him.
• The car in front hit the pedestrian but he got up so I hit him again.
• I saw a slow moving, sad faced old gentleman as he bounced off the roof of my car.
• A pedestrian hit me and went under my car.
• I saw her look at me twice. She appeared to be making slow progress when we met on impact.

The statements below are supposed to be taken from actual insurance accident claims forms turned in by claimants. They are supposed to be true (I don’t think you can make this kind of stuff up). Read them and laugh. And be glad it wasn’t you. .

• I collided with a stationary truck coming the other way.
• A truck backed through my windshield into my wife’s face.
• The other car collided with mine without giving warning of its intention.
• My car was legally parked as it backed into another vehicle.
• When I saw I could not avoid a collision I stepped on the gas and crashed into the other car.
• I started to slow down but the traffic was more stationary than I thought.
• The accident occurred when I was attempting to bring my car out of a skid by steering it into the other vehicle.
• I was backing my car out of the driveway in the usual manner, when it was struck by the other car in the same place it had been struck several times before.
• I was unable to stop in time and my car crashed into the other vehicle. The driver and passengers then left immediately for a vacation with injuries.
• The gentleman behind me struck me on the backside. He then went to rest in a bush with just his rear end showing.
• The car in front of me stopped for a yellow light, so I had no choice but to hit him. (She pushed him through the intersection)

The statements below are supposed to be taken from actual insurance accident claims forms turned in by claimants. They are supposed to be true (I don’t think you can make this kind of stuff up). Read them and laugh. And be glad it wasn’t you.

• Coming home I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don’t have.
• I told the police that I was not injured, but on removing my hat found that I had a fractured skull.
• I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law and headed over the embankment.
• I thought my window was down, but I found it was up when I put my head through it.
• As I approached an intersection a sign suddenly appeared in a place where no stop sign had ever appeared before. I was unable to stop in time to avoid the accident.
• In an attempt to kill a fly, I drove into a telephone pole.
• I saw two kangaroos having it off in the middle of the road. So I hit them, which caused me to ejaculate through the sunroof.
• I was thrown from my car as it left the road. I was later found in a ditch by some stray cows.
• The telephone pole was approaching. I was attempting to swerve out of the way when I struck the front end.
• I pulled in to the side of the road because there was smoke coming from under the hood. I realized there was a fire in the engine, so I took my dog and smothered it with a blanket.
• The claimant had collided with a cow. The questions and answers on the claim form were - Q: What warning was given by you? A: Horn. Q: What warning was given by the other party? A: Moo.

The statements below are supposed to be taken from actual insurance accident claims forms turned in by claimants. They are supposed to be true (I don’t think you can make this kind of stuff up). Read them and laugh. And be glad it wasn’t you.

• No one was to blame for the accident but it would never have happened if the other driver had been alert.
• I didn’t think the speed limit applied after midnight.
• I had been shopping for plants all day and was on my way home. As I reached an intersection a hedge sprang up, obscuring my vision and I did not see the other car.
• The indirect cause of the accident was a little guy in a small car with a big mouth.
• I was going at about 70 or 80 mph when my girlfriend reached over and grabbed my testicles so I lost control.
• I was on the way to the doctor with rear end trouble when my universal joint gave way causing me to have an accident.
• On approach to the traffic lights the car in front suddenly broke.
• The accident was caused by me waving to the man I hit last week.
• Windshield broke. Cause unknown. Probably Voodoo.
• No witnesses would admit having seen the mishap until after it happened.
• I had been learning to drive with power steering. I turned the wheel to what I thought was enough and found myself in a different direction going the opposite way.
• The accident happened when the right front door of a car came round the corner without giving a signal.
• I had been driving for forty years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident.
• I left for work this morning at 7am as usual when I collided straight into a bus. The bus was 5 minutes early.
• An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my car and vanished.
• I knew the dog was possessive about the car but I would not have asked her to drive it if I had thought there was any risk.
• The accident happened because I had one eye on the truck in front, one eye on the pedestrian, and the other on the car behind.
• I started to turn and it was at this point I noticed a camel and an elephant tethered at the verge. This distraction caused me to lose concentration and hit a bollard.

A lawyer in Charlotte, NC purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars, then insured them against fire among other things. Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars and without yet having made even his first premium payment on the policy, the lawyer filed a claim with the insurance company.

In his claim, the lawyer stated the cigars were lost “in a series of small fires.” The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason: that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion. The lawyer sued….and won! In delivering the ruling the judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous. The judge stated nevertheless, that the lawyer held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure them against fire, without defining what is considered to be “unacceptable fire,” and was obligated to pay the claim. Rather than endure lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid $15,000.00 to the lawyer for his loss of the rare cigars lost in the “fires.”

But… After the lawyer cashed the check, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 counts of ARSON! With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case used against him, the lawyer was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and was sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000.00 fine.