'Crash Tax' Adds Insult to Injury

Municipalities across the country have come up with a new way to fund emergency first-responders. Some call it the crash tax, and the idea is simply this: If you get in an accident, you will pay a fee, usually through your insurance agency.

How much you have to pay depends on what kind of accident you’re in. According to Autopia, the system is tier-based, so minor scrape-ups may cost you a few hundred bucks, while larger accidents involving emergency response units may run thousands of dollars.

Already, websites have sprouted up howling about the injustice of such fund-generating methods. AccidentResponseFees.org and AccidentTax.com point out the objections of both the insurance companies, who have to cover the fees, and consumers, whose policies all increase as a result.

According to AccidentTax, 18 local or county governments have instituted such fees, although the town of Wyoming, Mich., repealed the law after it faced a vigorous backlash. The latest municipality to try to fund short budgets with the crash tax is Orange County, Fla., where the law has run into some strident objections.

Even for towns faced with unappetizing budget shortfalls, the crash tax has more questions associated with it than does the SAT. For instance, who gets charged in a no-fault accident involving bad road conditions? What if people stop calling for medical attention after accidents because they don’t want to pay the fee? What if a driver doesn’t have insurance? Would the county assess the fee to the individual?

Most importantly, what’s next? Will this lead to people having to pay the fire department to come put out their house?

Drive Carefully: Cash-Strapped Municipalities Institute “Crash Fees” to Supplement Revenue (Autopia)