By Breanne Gilpatrick
The Miami Herald
Copyright 2007 The Miami Herald
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
DAVIE, Fla. — Roughly 4,000 times a year — or about 11 times per day — Davie’s police and fire departments respond to car crashes on interstates and state roads within the town’s borders.
If someone is hurt, the fire department has to send at least six firefighters with two emergency vehicles, spending at least half an hour and $500 per crash, Davie Fire Chief Don DiPetrillo said.
Recently, Davie became one of a growing number of cities that want to recover those costs by charging the drivers who get into accidents on their roads. Although Davie Town Council members voted against the idea, many other cities have adopted such fees, or are considering them as a way to bolster local budgets that are being squeezed by state-mandated spending cuts.
Despite warnings from auto insurance companies that the fees could drive up the cost of premiums, a host of cities around the state began looking more closely at them when the Florida Legislature debated tax-reform plans earlier this year, said Regina Moore, president of the Ohio-based Cost Recovery Corp., which has about a dozen clients and is one of several national companies that handles the crash-related collections.
“I would say the the phone calls that I’m receiving now have tripled,” she said.
More than two dozen cities already have enlisted contractors to recover fire-rescue costs from insurance companies and drivers, including Belleview, Chiefland and Live Oak in north-central Florida and a cluster of cities in the Panhandle.
In North Miami Beach, commissioners are looking at a plan that would charge insurance companies upward of $200 when drivers get into accidents on city roads.
North Miami Beach City Manager Keven Klopp estimated the town could recover between $250,000 and $500,000 of what it spends when city police respond to those calls. He said the money could make state-required budget cuts a little easier.
“Three-hundred-thousand dollars would allow us to save three cops,” he said.
City commissioners initially approved the proposal last month, but the city needs to iron out some of the details and check the legality of the ordinance before it gets a final approval.
But a day after the North Miami Beach vote on June 19, Davie leaders rejected a similar proposal.
Unlike the plan in North Miami Beach, Davie would have limited collections to state and federal roads. The draft proposal would have recovered about $750,000 in crash-related costs, according to town estimates.
Supporters argued the fees would keep the town from being a “donor city” that provides free fire and police services to people just passing through Davie.
And insurance companies already cover most of the other accident-related costs.
“This is not a revenue grab, this is a cost-recovery move,” DiPetrillo said. “People who replace the guardrails get paid. People who do the towing get paid. So why shouldn’t local government get paid?”
DiPetrillo said Davie’s plan has been on the table for several years, spurred by the high number of accidents they respond to on three interstates and toll roads that border the town -- Interstate 595, Florida’s Turnpike and Interstate 75.
Some opponents say the fees are unfair for residents, who already are paying taxes.
“It’s just kicking the little guy when they’re down,” Davie Councilman Bryan Caletka said. ‘I don’t believe that people go out there and say, ‘I’m going to cause an accident today.’ ”