AASHTO Journal, 28 February 2014
By partnering with a private company to manage and recover claims for damages on state property resulting from vehicle crashes, the Georgia Department of Transportation is saving taxpayers from footing the bill and making the department more efficient.
According to GDOT, about 12,000 crashes each year cause damage or destruction to state property such as guardrails, signage, and bridge support columns. That damage, GDOT officials said, can amount to as much as $10 million each year. While the individuals that caused the damage are responsible for paying for it, GDOT is responsible for replacing or repairing the damaged property while also recovering the cost from those that caused the incident. This task often proves to be time consuming and difficult, as GDOT doesn’t have the capacity to go after this money (claims collections is not a GDOT core business function). GDOT in the past has recovered only about a million dollars each year, as compared to the $10 million in damage caused.
To recover more of that money without compromising department resources, GDOT contracted with Oklahoma-based Claims Management Resources, Inc. (CMR) about six months ago at no cost to state taxpayers. CMR has been tasked with negotiating with “responsible parties” and their insurance carriers and to date, has recovered more than $1 million for GDOT.
“We’re extremely pleased with the results,” said GDOT Deputy Commissioner Todd Long in a statement. “Too often we have had to utilize taxpayers’ dollars to repair damage caused by one individual; this effort helps hold those individuals and their insurance providers responsible. And now we are on a pace to recover $3 million in the first year of this contract, perhaps $4 million. That will be a tremendous improvement over previous collections and a significant amount we can reinvest in growing the state’s transportation network. Further, it allows our employees to focus on their primary duties.”
CMR is under contract to work for GDOT in recovering these damages for three years.