Properly installed safety seat can save a life

Proper installation is key to car seat protection.

One of the most important pieces of safety equipment a new parent can have is a child car seat. Just having a child car seat, however, is not enough. To truly receive the benefits the seat can provide, it must be properly installed.

Unfortunately, from 2007 to 2011 more than 3,600 children were killed in car accidents. More than a third of those were killed because they were not in a car seat or were in a car seat that wasn’t properly installed.

When my first child was born in April 2000, we bought a car seat, but we didn’t have a clue on how to install one. My local fire department was offering free installations, so I decided to check it out. I was shocked to see two firemen work to install the seat. One sat on the car seat base while the other pulled the seat belt with all his might, installed the locking clip and clicked it in. I remarked to one that it seemed like overkill. The firefighter said that, for the seat to do its job, it has to be that tight.

Five months later it was time to take a road trip to Chicago to show off our baby daughter to my family. As we approached downtown Chicago on the Dan Ryan Expressway at about 65 mph, traffic suddenly ground to a halt. We stopped in plenty of time, but a car behind us did not.

The entire event seemed to occur in slow motion. I saw the speeding car coming up fast in my rearview mirror. I yelled to my wife, in the back seat with my daughter, to hang on and, BAM, we were hit. The force of the impact knocked us into the car in front of us. My head knocked off the rearview mirror, and my knee went through the plastic trim below the instrument panel even though I was properly restrained. Before the crash, my daughter was fast asleep, but with the sudden jarring she was now screaming. We couldn’t tell if she was hurt, startled or both.

It seemed like an eternity, but it likely was only a few minutes before the fire department arrived on the scene. My wife and I were fine, but we had no idea about our daughter. The force of the impact had knocked her car seat handle up and over my driver’s seat. A firefighter cut the seat belt still holding the car seat in place, and they transported my daughter by ambulance to Chicago Children’s Hospital still in the car seat, not wanting to move her. The doctors saw her immediately and ordered x-rays to see the extent of the damage.

To everyone’s surprise, she was not harmed in any way. No broken bones, no scratches. She was completely fine. The paramedic, who remained with us this entire time, remarked that we must have had the car seat professionally installed. We told him we had the local fire department do it. He stated it was a good thing, for if there were any slack in the seat belt — even half an inch — our daughter likely would have died from the impact.

That day I became a believer in the importance of a proper car seat and the extreme importance of proper installation.  I encourage you to share my story with anyone with small children. You never know when an accident may occur, but if it does you want to be sure you did all you could to protect your child.

More information:                                                            http://www.safercar.gov/parents/index.htm                                                 http://buckleupforlife.org

Submitted by Steve Smith

The Craft Brewer Insurance Essentials

With the exponential growth of the industry, there’s never been a better time to be a brewer in Colorado. However, there are some things you should be prepared for. Protecting your investment is one of the most important strategies for your success. From grower to glass, there are key ways to manage risk during every step of your business to ensure that the inevitable hiccups breweries are likely to run into at some point (a delayed shipment, contaminated batch, equipment breakdown, employee injury) don’t compromise your business or your profits.

Selecting the appropriate insurance is essential for protecting your brewery. From liquor liability coverage to loss control, to data compromise, product recall, property insurance, and equipment breakdown.

To highlight the importance of craft-specific insurance (vs. standard commercial insurance) to your brewery, let’s use a metaphor. 

The Craft Brewer Insurance Essentials:

• The “Domestics”: Here’s a helpful list of The 7 Essential Business Insurance Policies (that you should already have).
• The “Crafts”: Brewer-specific insurance essentials that best protect your brewery’s unique risks from an unexpected hiccup or loss are highlighted in the four P’s, below.

 You went into brewing craft beer because you value quality, plain and simple. You don’t care that it costs more than the other stuff, and neither do your consumers. Why? Because the superior product is worth it. From the raw materials to the packaging, quality is your focus. Insuring your business is no different. You have two options when choosing coverage for your brewery: Commercial (“Domestic”) and brewery-specific (“Craft”). “Domestic” gets the job done, but not with the quality and satisfaction you really want. “Craft” provides the best quality of coverage, customized to your industry: superior protection for a superior product.

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There are four specific areas of your brewery that have unique coverage needs ("Craft"), above and beyond the standard commercial ("Domestic") policy. We’ll call these the four P’s (because it’s catchy), and the things that you most need to protect:

1.     Passion – We’re all in the brewery business for a reason. For most of us, it’s because making great beer is our passion. We are entrepreneurs and enjoy both the freedoms and challenges that come with it. Protecting that passion and its inherent risks is vital to our growth and success. Third party lawsuits and claims against your brewery can put an end to that opportunity in a hurry. 

·      General Liability coverage protects you against third party premise claims.

·      Liquor Liability provides protection against third party claims involving the sale either on or off premise of your product – beer. 

2.     Property – We all know we need to protect our breweries from risks like fire, wind, hail, falling objects, etc. Breweries need several brewer-specific add-ons to their commercial property policy, without which damage to (expensive) equipment may not be fully covered. 

·      Equipment Breakdown extends your property policy to cover loss to property from the sudden and accidental breakdown of machinery and equipment used in your business.

·      Tank Collapse provides financial protection up to policy limits for a loss caused by collapse of a tank due to failure of a pressure relief device. 

·      Tank Leakage provides coverage for a loss due to a leak of finished or in process beer from a tank, vessel, or barrel.

3.     Profits – Most breweries start out making a profit because of our onsite sales or taprooms. Some of us also have distributing risks and orders to fill. In the event of a property loss, your business will be shut down until the property is repaired or replaced. The question is for how long, and how do you recover from that.    

·      Business Income provides coverage for your lost net income and continuing operating expenses. One important point is that the continuing operating expenses includes payroll for your key employees or brewers.  

·      Extra Expense coverage provides funds to ensure you reopen again as soon as possible. For breweries, that might include expenses like renting another location or contracting out some of the production. Since water is such an important ingredient, some insurance carriers provide specific coverage for a loss of processing water if the quality is not there after a loss. 

·      Dependent Properties is property insurance that pays for the loss of income or increase in expenses resulting from damage to the premises of another organization on which your business depends, such as a key supplier or customer.

·      Utility Service Interruption protects your brewery against losses caused by utility outages, ensuring that if lights go out for an extended period of time, or you’re without water, phone, natural gas, or Internet, for an extended period of time, your business won’t suffer.

·      Crime protection covers employee theft, forgery and alteration, theft of money and securities, computer fraud, funds transfer fraud, and loss from accepting in good faith money orders and counterfeit money, in your taproom and beyond. 

4.     People – More than most industries, the brewery industry is about people. We make great beer for people to enjoy, and also try our best to provide a great environment for our own people to work in. We’re required to provide some protection for them (like Workers Comp), and depending on the size of the business, you may wish to provide additional benefits to your team.

·      Workers Compensation

·      Medical

·      Disability

·      Life Insurance   

Other optional coverages to consider, based on your brewery’s unique needs:

• Federal and State Brewery Bonds
• Product Recall or Contamination
• Special Events/Tasting Room
• Supply Chain Insurance
• Data Compromise and Identity Theft Expense

Why choose a brewer-specific insurance agent?

Here’s the thing. I love your beer. Why? It’s delicious, it’s quality, it’s local, and I’m friends with so many of the people creating it. I’m proud to live in the State of Craft Beer, and I want to help it continue to grow at the impressive rate that it has been. So I asked myself, how can I help keep Colorado craft beer so great? By protecting it. That’s my area of expertise, and the way that I can contribute best (other than continuing to drink a lot of it).

I specialize in brewery insurance, customizing coverage to protect your unique business so that you can focus on what really matters: making and selling great beer. My goal is to help protect your exposures at an affordable price, whether you are in the startup phase or an industry veteran who wants to review your existing policies to make sure your thriving business is protected the way it should be.

For a free quote or coverage review, or to learn more about brewer-specific policies that best protect the business you’ve worked so hard for, reach out to me, John Jacquat, at (303) 834-1001 or at john@purerisksolutions.com.

The 7 Essential Business Insurance Policies:

Liability insurance protects your business
from third-party lawsuits

There are so many commercial insurance coverage options out there, it can feel confusing or overwhelming trying to sift through them to determine which are necessary for protecting your business. To help you, we’ve made a list of the seven insurance policies that every business owner should have, regardless of business type or size (and we’ve even outlines some additional coverage options that are smart add-ons, or even essentials, depending on the type of business you own).

Protecting your investment is one of the most important strategies for your success. Managing your risk is the best way to ensure that the inevitable mistakes that occur along the normal lines of doing business (schedule or shipment delays, accidents and injuries, damage to inventory) don’t compromise your business or your profits. The right insurance policies help safeguard your profits and your possessions.

If you’re just starting out, these business insurance basics are essential to your future success. If you own an existing business, you should already have these coverages to protect the profitability of the business you’re working so hard for.

Seven business insurance policies that you shouldn’t do without:

1. General Liability Insurance – This covers damage to persons or property caused by a business's product or premises (sometimes referred to as “slip and fall” insurance). Maybe the most important coverage you can get in our litigation-looped society, this can protect you against a wide range of lawsuits, from the postal worker who slips and falls in your parking lot to the consumer injured by your product. You need this type of coverage before you ever sell a single product or service. There are several different types of liability options that can be included in your policy depending on your business type, including general liability, product liability, liquor liability, advertising liability, on and off premises liability, and many others. Product liability, for instance, protects you if your business makes a product that could conceivably harm someone else. (Food and beverage related businesses that produce a consumable product need this type of coverage.
2. Commercial Property Insurance – Property insurance covers damage to your building and the items within it, including inventory, loss of income, and furniture/electronics. It

   

   Commercial Property Insurance protects
   your premises and the items inside it 

   also covers any improvements or customizations that you make as a tenant, if you rent your space.
3. Commercial Auto Insurance – This will cover collision and liability for the vehicles that are owned by you, your employees, and rented vehicles.
4. Workers Compensation – Bodily injury to yourself or your employees.  Whether you have one employee or a hundred, you need Workers Comp included in your policy. Workers Comp is a state required benefit that will help take care of medical become ill while working at your brewery. 
5. Excess Liability/Umbrella Insurance – An umbrella policy provides excess coverage over your already existing policies. It is a much more affordable way to increase your limits and extend your liability than increasing limits of every liability policy in your insurance plan.
6. Employment Practices Liability Insurance – Coverage for defense costs and damages related to various employment-related claims, including allegations of Wrongful Termination, Discrimination, Workplace Harassment and Retaliation deriving from the employer-employee relationship.
7. Crime – Protection against loss from crime covers employee theft, forgery and alteration, theft of money and securities, computer fraud, funds transfer fraud, and loss from accepting in good faith money orders and counterfeit money.   

Additional coverages to consider, based on your business needs:

• Data Compromise and Identity Theft Expense Coverage – Provides for certain expenses after a covered loss to help you respond and protect your good name. It also includes access to services to help you prepare for such events.

• Equipment Breakdown Coverage – Extends your property policy to cover loss to real and business personal property from the sudden and accidental breakdown of machinery and equipment used in your business.

• Supply Chain Insurance – A problem with your supply chain can cause major losses, from a problem with a key supplier to a temporary halt in production, unless your supply chain insurance policy kicks in and balances out your profits.

• Errors and Omissions Insurance – Also known as professional liability insurance or professional indemnity insurance, this is a form of liability insurance particularly important to service or advice-oriented businesses that protects you should you make a mistake or neglect to do something correctly or on time that causes your client money or harms their reputation. (A prime example would be a doctor's or dentist’s medical malpractice insurance, but this coverage is equally as necessary for a wedding photographer whose film gets damaged, or a printer whose machine breaks down in the middle of a big deadline.)

• Business Income Insurance. This is disability coverage for your business. This ensures you get paid if you lose income as a result of damage that temporarily shuts down or limits your business.

• Directors and Officers Liability – Financial coverage for defense costs and damages (awards and settlements) cause by allegations and lawsuits brought against an organizations’ board of directors and/or officers (and the decisions made by these individuals). This is more typical for publicly-traded companies and nonprofits, that have boards and/or multiple investors.

Rule of Thumb: Never settle for inadequate insurance for your business (or for yourself). If you started out with $200,000 in property insurance and your business has successfully grown worth of well more than half a million dollars, you need to update your coverage so that a fire, flood, theft or another misfortune won’t leave you at a destructive loss. It can be hard to imagine the worst happening when business is good, and hefty insurance premiums are low on your preferred expenditures list. But while a low quote may look good on paper, lesser coverage can make or break your business should an accident occur.

Shop Carefully: Insurance policies come in a wide variety with many different features, benefits, and prices.  Talk to an agent you trust and go over your policies with them so that you understand your coverage and its cost, and ensure you choose policies that adequately cover your business needs.

Pure Risk Solutions specializes in commercial insurance, assuring customized coverage related to your unique business. Our goal is to help protect your exposures at an affordable price, whether you are in the startup phase or want to review your existing policies to make sure your thriving business is protected the way it should be.

For specific questions related to your business, or for a free quote or policy review, reach out to me,  John Jacquat, at (303) 834-1001 or at  john@purerisksolutions.com.