MRM TRUSTNOTES



0-1028700MRMMRM00MRMMRMMRM Workers’ Compensation Trust /MRM Property & Liability Trust - Website: TRUSTNOTES – AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2020 NEW WORKERS’ COMP RATES FOR PROGRAM YEAR 2020-2021The Trust’s actuary, Milliman, has calculated the new rates effective October 1, 2020. The changes in the individual class rates are based on the experience of those classes. The rates include an overall 0.6% decrease. This is the eighth consecutive year that the MRM Trust has reduced rates. Please remember that your premium/contribution will be impacted by changes in your payroll and your experience modifier. Class CodeRate Change980 - Cities & Towns+0.3%985P - Police-1/6%985F - Paid Fire-3.8%951 - Inspectors-8.7%953 - Clerical-3.2%753 - Waterworks+2.4%807 - Paid EMT’s-2.4%993 - Volunteer EMT’s-4.1%890 - Public Library+1.7%944 - Club-2.8%969 - Outdoor Amusement+1.8%976 - YMCA+1.3%862 - Recycling+1.3%Weighted (by premium) manual rate change-0.6%MRM WORKERS’ COMP AND PROPERTY & LIABILITY POOLS PAY $10.8 MILLION IN DIVIDENDSThe MRM Workers’ Comp and Property & Liability Pools paid combined dividends of $10,876,397 to their respective members.The MRM Worker’s Comp Trust paid a dividend in the amount of $7,612,187. The cumulative dividends paid from 1996 to 2020 total $113,669,553. The MRM Property & Liability Trust (PLT) paid a Self-Insured Retention (SIR) dividend of $3,264,210. The PLT SIR Program began on May 15, 2005 and is now in its fifteenth year. PLT members have received cumulative dividends of $26,328,587.Dividends paid in the MRM Safety Group Program, MRM Workers’ Comp Trust and the MRM Property & Liability Trust Programs total over $150 million. ELECTION OF TRUSTEESThe Municipal Risk Management Property & Liability Trust (PLT) members elected three Trustees to new three-year terms (2020-2023) - Jim Reid, representing Ohio Township; Pete Poninsky, Sr., representing the Borough of Leetsdale and Jim Boyle, representing Shaler Township. The MRM Workers’ Compensation Pooled Trust members elected three Trustees to new three-year terms (2020-2023) - Mark Devlin, representing Ross/West View EMS Authority; Kathleen N. DePuy, representing the Borough of Whitehall and M. Kimberly Steele, representing the Borough of West View.CHANGE IN THE TORT CLAIM ACTLate in 2019, Governor Tom Wolfe signed into law Act 87 of 2019, providing for a new exception to municipal immunity, sexual abuse.The new Act defines sexual abuse as “conduct which constitutes an offense under 42 P.S. C: S.A. Section 5551, if the injuries to the plaintiff were caused by actions or omissions of the local agency which constitute negligence.” The offenses that fall under the new immunity exception are the following sex crimes that involve minors, human trafficking, sexual servitude, rape, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, institutional sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault and incest. The new exception can expose municipalities and local governmental agencies to be liable for their negligent failure to prevent detect of stop the commission of these criminal acts if the victim is a minor.Most interesting, where the Pennsylvania Political subdivision Tort Claim Act provides for a $500,000 cap on damages for the other enumerated areas: (1) vehicle liability, (2) care, custody or control of personal property, (3) real property, (4) trees, traffic controls and street lighting, (5) utility service facilities, (6) streets, (7) sidewalks and (8) care, custody or control of animals, this new section has no cap on damages. What impact this change in municipal immunity will cause is obviously unknown, but for those entities that have youth programs it is incumbent on them to be aware of the actions of all adults involved. While the municipal entity may not be held liable for the criminal conduct of one of its personnel, it could be found responsible if its actions are found to be negligent in allowing that criminal conduct to occur.ROADWAY MAINTENANCEThe ScenarioIt is late and you are driving home from a friend’s house. The darkness and the unfamiliarity of the road settles in on you. It has been raining softly for the past hour and the road surface glistens as your headlights hit it. The wet roadway makes it nearly impossible to see the center line and there is no fog line at the edge of the roadway. The darkness, unfamiliarity and glare are giving you an uneasy feeling as driving becomes more difficult through a section of the road that is known for slow curves. As you approach a curve, sharper than you expected, you do not see the caution sign that announces the curve and the 30-mph advisory speed limit. You realize that you are traveling too fast and try to correct. The distance between your vehicle and the trees closes rapidly. Your frantic braking fails to control the speed of the vehicle and it careens off the roadway. Your vehicle collides with a tree and you realize that you have been punched in the chest by the airbag that deploys because of the impact.What happened? Where was the warning?Hundreds of road signs, including stop signs, are no longer visible to the driving public. There are a few causes including vandalized sign faces, overgrown vegetation, poor installation, loss of reflectivity or the sign is just no longer there.According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there were more than 7 million reported traffic accidents last year. Of course, poor driving habits or inattentive drivers were the causes of many of these accidents. However, a significant number of these accidents may have causal factors related to road hazards, road defects, roadway design, problems with signs and traffic signals, guardrails or guide rails, pedestrian crossings, or lane markings. These secondary causes may lead to the public entity's involvement in litigation initiated by an injured driver or pedestrian. The factors that are blamed for contributing to an accident may be the result poor maintenance, inadequate design, or the absence of a process to know the condition of the roadway.What can you do to help protect your citizens from injury and your municipality from liability because of various road defects and hazards?The first step is knowledge. To protect your citizens, you must first know about the size and scope of the peril. Data shows that most miles of road surface in the U.S. are within the jurisdiction of the local authority. You can assume that there is a relationship between the miles of roadway and the number of vehicular accidents. Now consider the miles of roadway, the number of signs, the miles of pavement markings, the number of guardrails or guide rails and the number of bridges owned and maintained by your entity. The numbers are going to be far larger than your elected officials or their constituents may have imagined. It is important to have a solid understanding of these numbers and to devise a method for managing this risk.Now that you have counted all road “elements” and have begun to quantify the exposure to the driving public, you will have to design and implement controls to manage this enormous risk. Experts suggests beginning with several controls to help manage these risks:Bridge and road design work should be completed by the State Department of Transportation or an engineering firm, relying on a licensed engineer with experience in bridge and road design. If you are unable to use outside engineering and must design your own roads, the design should be done by a person with experience, certification, and licensure as a road design engineer.Experienced, qualified bridge inspectors should handle periodic bridge inspections. Organizations without qualified bridge inspection staff should be contracting these inspections out to licensed engineers or certified bridge inspection groups.?Staff members or contractors who service traffic signals should be qualified and available on short notice. Maintenance of traffic signals is far more complicated than replacing bulbs.?There should be a priority system in place for replacing downed signs. That priority should include stop, stop ahead, signal ahead, blind approach, wrong way, and other critical traffic control signs.Personnel and equipment must be on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to replace downed signs.?Retrievable documentation needs to be kept on notification and replacement of downed signs.?An annual road-striping program should be in place to keep the road striping in highly visible condition.?A road surface repair and preventive maintenance program needs to be in place.?The inventory of all traffic and informational signs should include installation date, inspection frequency and inspection results. Sign replacement data should be maintained.?A sign inspection program should include cutbacks, visibility and placement; the annual reflectivity inspection results should be included with the inspection documentation.?Annual employee training on work zone traffic control should be conducted.?Road design and maintenance standards appropriate for your region should be adopted and adhered to.?A road remediation program should be devised to bring non-conforming roads into compliance with new standards.?A program to upgrade deficient road shoulders should be developed and implemented.?A permit system should be implemented for utility crews doing installation or repair under or near your roadways.?A guide rail installation, replacement and repair program should be developed and instituted.?Permits should be required for all new driveway construction, other new access points to the roadway and culvert installations.?No article about street and road design and maintenance would be complete without mentioning the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices. The MUTCD is published by the U.S. Department of Transportation and is considered the definitive source of information on traffic control devices. This manual is available on the web at?mutcd.fhwa..With effective road defect management, you can help provide safer roadways for the driving public.Karen BeckOptimus Risk ServicesCFO, Christine Harem, will be mailing the premium invoices for the 2020-2021 policy period to all members between August 27-September 4. Please be on the lookout for your packet of information. If you have any questions, contact her at 724-934-1595 or e-mail her at Chris@. ................
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