Government makes auto accidents more painful than they need to be, and that'll never change.
Why? You might ask.
On Friday, I was involved in a car accident. It was a hit & run and I wasn't at all hurt. I pulled into a parking lot and, as they hold a coercive monopoly on accident investigation, I called the police. After asking a few questions, the officer informed me a report would be ready in 3 days. He handed me a business card with my case number and I was on my way.
Three days later, I called the number on the business card and was informed my accident report was ready for pick-up. I asked if it could be faxed to me and was told "no". I asked if it could be emailed to me and was told "no".
I find this curious as a person standing at a fax machine, dialing numbers, is clearly a more efficient use of scarce resources than a customer service window at the police station. Even more efficient would be email. What if the investigating officers asked for your email at the scene? The supervisor approving the report would use no more effort emailing it to you than he would electronically signing it. Right? This isn't rocket science. It's nearly 2014.
Well, a few minutes later, I got a phone call from an Indiana telephone number. A pre-recorded message was left at my voicemail from buycrashreport.com asking me to come to their website to get my accident report, for a fee of course.
Going to their website reveals a statement at the bottom that "Agencies that contribute crash reports and make them available through Buycrash.com see a tremendous annual cost savings for themselves and taxpayers. This savings is realized through reduced paper printing, processing, postage, storage and retrieval costs."
How does the agency "contribute" crash reports to this private company? Do you think a person from Buycrash has to drive down to the police department to pick them up? How'd they get access to my cell phone number? Do you think they had to get that electronically? Wouldn't emailing me my report also save tremendously on reduced paper printing, processing, postage, storage and retrieval costs as well?
This is crony-capitalism at work ladies and gentlemen. The answer to all of these questions is simple. Buycrash PAYS my local "law enforcement" agency to NOT make my report available to me in any way other than in person. They pay government NOT to innovate. They pay government NOT to use YOUR TAX DOLLARS to SERVE YOU. They do it all so they can charge you for a service that could be provided to you for free in exchange for the taxes you already pay.
The only way to fight this corruption is to not pay...and I won't.
For additional questions, please email me at jason@carnellfirm.com or call me at 770-729-4809.
- Jason Carnell
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