Spring is almost here. With the changing weather, rental stores around the country look forward to increased rentals of equipment after the normal winter lull. Now is a good time for rental stores to remind their drivers to slow down and arrive safely at their delivery and pickup sites. Driving too fast and too closely to other vehicles can easily lead to a rear-end auto accident. Sometimes rear-end auto accidents only involve your vehicle and the one ahead of you. Other times an accident can involve multiple vehicles and become quite costly.

For example, a rental store driver was in a large box truck loaded with equipment and driving through rush hour traffic. He exited the highway and had not started to slow down when he realized too late that traffic was stopped on the off ramp. The rental store truck rear-ended the car in front of it and pushed that car into four other vehicles. All of the other vehicles had been at a complete stop, so there was no one else to blame but the rental store’s driver.

A claim was turned in to the rental store’s insurance carrier and it paid tens of thousands of dollars to repair the five vehicles damaged in the accident. The driver of the store’s delivery truck also received a ticket from the police for his actions. The rental store’s truck was damaged and its insurance paid for the repairs after the store’s deductible was taken.

This item, provided by ARA Insurance Services, Kansas City, Mo., is the story of a real-life insurance claim involving a rental store and is intended to help readers better understand and manage risk. For more safety and risk management information, customers of ARA Insurance Services can log on to ReSource. Access is free, so if you haven’t signed up yet, contact your agent or call 800-821-6580.