Archive for the ‘Accident Insurance’ Category

Cheerleading Causing Catastrophic Injuries

Regulated or not, cheering poses serious risks

Cheerleading has evolved well past the days of “Rah, rah, rah, GO TEAM” It has quickly become one of the most dangerous sports among young women. According to an article in the Washington Post, cheerleading accounts for more than half of all catastrophic injuries to girl athletes.  We have seen an increased number of squads that are not just cheering for a localsports team, but are in competition for themselves.

Concussions and the serious side effects associated with them are in the news for good reason, but usually associated with football and soccer players. Concussions suffered by cheerleaders apparently aren’t being reported as frequently as those suffered in other sports. This could be a result of the ongoing effort of cheerleaders, coaches and parents to gain respectability for the sport.

Much of the concern for young athletes at risk for concussion goes to the obvious heavy-hitters:  football, soccer, basketball.  But an expert who studies the injury in youth sports say one major activity is being overlooked: cheerleading.

Female athletes may be at even higher risk for suffering a concussion than their male counterparts.  Girls’ neck muscles are generally weaker than boys’, making them more susceptible to dangers that come from rapid acceleration or deceleration, and whiplash. – Melissa Dahl, msnbc.com

It is always important to make sure that the participants are well trained, not only in the how to execute stunts, but to do them in ways to protect themselves and their squad members.

We offer cheerleading insurance for teams and cheer school. For more information or a quote, call us at (800) 622-7370.

Is Your Team/League Adequately Insured?

Find out with our minimum requirement checklist

How do you know for sure that your team/league sports insurance policies provide the coverage you need to protect against devastating lawsuits? Many local insurance agents and even so called sports insurance specialists are guilty of offering inadequate coverages.

Minimum standards for sports insurance have been set by a sports insurance expert, risk manager, and attorney John Sadler of Sadler Sports and Recreation Insurance. These standards are outlined in two separate checkChecklistlists, one for private teams/leagues that purchase their own insurance one for teams/leagues with insurance provided by a municipal recreation department. Feel free to use our Sports Organization Insurance Checklist and Municipal Recreation Department Insurance Checklist.

Sports administrators no longer need to frustrate themselves trying to determine what coverage and limits are necessary. They can simply submit the checklist to their insurance agent for completion. The insurance agent then checks off whether each standard has been met and signs his or her name.

Once the completed checklist has been received, administrators then can decide what to do based on the results. If your team/league hasn’t met the the mandatory standards, your insurance agent should  remedy the problem or you should find a new insurance agent who can offer policies that meet the minimum standards.

Visit our team and league insurance page for more information on coverage or to get a quote. Or call us at (800) 622-7370!

Copyright 2017, Sadler & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

 

Swimming outings source of liability claims

Safety first at team pool parties

The swimming outing in a coach’s backyard or at a motel pool during a tournament is commonly the source of drowning or near-drowning incidents.

Drowning among youth baseball and softball players seems to be a prevalent problem in youth sports leagues. Of course, this is not isolated to just the baseball/softball arena, but more common most likely because of spring and summer activity.

An 8-year-old boy nearly drowned during his football team pool party in Arizona. His parents were in attendance but distracted for just long enough. Fortunately, the child was rescued by another alert parent.  Unfortunately, most cases that we read about do not have such happy endings.

Sport-related injuriesVigilance is the key

Drowning is the second highest cause of accidental death in children under the age of 15, according to the Center for Disease Control.. Approximately 750 children will drown next year, 375 of whom will be within 25 yards of an adult.

Accidents cannot always be prevented. It’s critical, however, to be vigilant when dealing with children in youth sports organizations. Most of the time, not every one of the children has a parent or guardian with them, especially when the team travels.  These parents trust that the coaches and volunteers that they leave their children with will be monitoring their safety and bringing them back home in one piece.

Steps toward prevention

Simple precautions can be taken to lessen the risk of drowning.

  • Participation requires passing a swim test.

  • Instill in team members “the buddy system” so they’re accountable for each other.

  • Have at least one CPR-trained adult in attendance.

  • Prohibit alcohol consumption by adults at all youth parties.

  • Adults should not be involved in any distracting activity (such as grilling, reading, talking on phone)

  • Hire a certified lifeguard and require them to provide proof of adequate General Liability insurance.

The avoidance alternative

A number of Sadler Sports insurance clients have been sued for drowning or near drowning incidents resulting in very costly settlements. I’ve personally witnessed a number of incidents around pools where parents get caught up in conversations and lose their concentration for just a split second, and that’s all it takes.

In my opinion, the risks of serious injury and resulting lawsuits are so significant with swimming parties that such activities should be avoided as their risks outweigh their benefits. Avoidance of high risk activities is sports risk management 101 and I put swimming parties right up there with the use of 15 passenger vans (tip-over risks) and sleepovers (sex abuse and molestation risk).

You can find further information on pool safety on the American Red Cross website. If you have questions, please contact us.

Reducing Facial Injuries in Youth Baseball

Batter face guards improve injury statistics

A study of youth baseball Accident Insurance claims from 1994 to 2008 revealed that the batter’s face guard was effective in eliminating a significant percentage of facial injuries. Baseball facial InjuryThe study consisted of Accident claim data provided by Sadler Sports Insurance on behalf of Dixie Youth Baseball and Dixie Boys Baseball, which was analyzed by the USA Baseball Medical And Safety Advisory Committee.

Batter’s face guards were effective in reducing the number of facial injuries to batters being struck in the face by pitched balls and base runners being stuck in the face by thrown balls. The number of injuries dropped from about three percent in leagues where use of face guards was voluntary to less than half of one percent of all claims in leagues where their use was mandatory.

Even though the reduction in facial injuries was impressive, the USA Baseball Medical And Safety Advisory Committee noted that the batter’s face guard does not need to be required in youth baseball as a result of the overall low risk of facial injuries due to pitched balls. However, the use of the batter’s face guard should be encouraged and does not appear to pose an increased risk of injury to the batter, base runner, or to other players on the field.

See the full study.

Insurance Requirements for Rec Facility Users

Reduce liability exposure with proper collection of certificates of insurance

Facility user groups such as teams, leagues, tournament hosts, camps, instructors, and special event operators must carry adequate insurance. In addition to providing the proper coverage, Sadler Sports Insurance can assist you in reducing your liability by:

    • setting minimum insurance limits and coverage standards that adequately protect the recreation department
    • providing a simple free checklist tool to assist in verifying insurance compliance
    • referring uninsured facility users to a specific web page where they can get an instant quote,  instantly pay, and bind coverage  without any delays or hassles. Their delays and hassles become your delays and hassles.
    • setting your recreation department up in our system so that the certificates of insurance meet your special wording requirements every time, which cuts down on your frustration over certificates that don’t meet your requirements.

The video below walks you through the process in more detail.

Swim Club Tragedy

Freak accident highlights need for Accident and General Liability Insurance

An accident can happen anywhere at any time. Recently, 11-year-old Lauren Cecil of North Carolina was electrocuted when an electric surge from a downed power line passed through the pool in which she and two teammates were practicing.

The swim club president witnessed the wire fall and land in a parking lot. When she heard a “popping” noise and saw a puff of smoke, she sent lifeguards to stand guard around the pool and encourage swimmers to exit.  While Cecil’s teammates were able to safely jump out of the pool, she attempted to leave using a ladder. Unfortunately, the metal ladder served as a conductor that sent a shock through her body.

Lifeguards were unable to retrieve her from the pool immediately because the water continued to transmit electric shocks. They eventually used a body board and kickboard to remove Cecil from the pool and begin CPR. Their attempts to resuscitate her were unsuccessful and she was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.

In the insurance industry, we are in the business of expecting the unexpected. Crazy things happen every day. Tragedies such as the one that befell Lauren Cecil are not unheard of, so it is important to protect your swim club or fitness facility in the event of an accident. General Liability and Accident insurance are the best forms of protection for ensuring that your organization and its administrators, staff, and participants do not suffer a serious financial loss as the result of unforeseen circumstances.

Source: 11-year-old North Carolina Girl Electrocuted While Swimming in Pool

American Youth Football and American Youth Cheer Insurance

The Gold Standard

The risky world of youth tackle and cheer

In the high risk world of youth tackle football, flag, & cheer, risk is everywhere in the form of concussions, spinal injuries, cheer stunts, sex abuse and molestation, lack of supervision, lack of instruction, premises problems, equipment problems, etc. In this world, administrators and staff (volunteer and paid) are putting their personal assets on the chopping block every day should an unfortunate mishap occur and result in a lawsuit. This is especially true if the insurance that was purchased to protect against this risk is inadequate.

Competitors often offer inadequate coverage to AYF/AYC

What is inadequate insurance? It could be that the limits are not high enough, but the more common situation occurs when the coverage within the limits includes unacceptable coverage exclusions or loopholes. And these unacceptable coverage exclusions are much more common than you may think, and can even exist if the program is another national association program. Sadler Sports Insurance has fought the battle against these unacceptable exclusions for many years by both educating the public and our competitors. We bring a problem area to the attention of our clients and offer a custom solution Then, within the next year or two, our competitors adopt it and act like it was their idea all along.

But competitors who merely attempt to copy the industry leader are not innovators and will always lag behind.

As for inadequate limits, many organizations no longer feel comfortable with an Each Occurrence Limit of only $1 million. After all, youth tackle football and cheer is more risky compared to some other popular sports. Therefore, an Each Occurrence limit of $2 million or $5 million should be strongly considered. The Each Occurrence limit applies to the amount that is available to respond to any single lawsuit.

The General Aggregate limit is a whole different issue. The General Aggregate is the amount that is available to respond to multiple lawsuits during the policy year. Many competitors offer a General Liability Each Occurrence Limit of $1 million and a General Aggregate limit of $2 million. A General Aggregate limit of at least $5 million may be necessary in the event that multiple lawsuits are filed during the same policy year. One recent concern in this area is the possibility of class action lawsuits by players over brain damage caused by sub-concussive impacts YOUTH FOOTBALL(CTE) from helmet-to-helmet hits. The jury is still very much out on this issue and hopefully such talk is just media hype. However, the possibility does exist.

AYF is leading the way with coach training in the area of concussions and the endorsed insurance program is structured in such a way as to offer superior protection to that of most competing programs.

Examples of common unacceptable exclusions under a General Liability policy include but are not limited to:

  • volunteer vs volunteer
  • participant vs participant
  • player vs player
  • cheer stunts and pyramiding
  • bleacher collapse
  • contractual liability limitation
  • sexual abuse and molestation
  • warranty of waiver/release, warranty of concussion training
  • punitive damages
  • assault and battery
  • athletic participant

We provide a checklist that can be used to analyze a competitor’s program against the AYF/AYC endorsed program, which is especially instructive in terms of revealing unacceptable exclusions.  Sadler Sports Insurance would be glad to assist in the comparison process if you can provide a copy of the competitor’s actual policy forms (Accident and General Liability). Unfortunately, you really don’t know much if you are relying on a competitor’s certificate of insurance or proposal as those documents are not required to include information on the policy exclusions.

Beware of competitor claims that seem too good to be true

A certain amount of self promotion and puffery is expected when advertising any product or service. However, some competitors may claim to have the best and lowest priced insurance product in the market as an attention grabber but that may not be the case after the dust settles. Whenever a claim or offer sounds too good to be true, it always is too good to be true in my experience. The incredible, attractive offer usually does not hold up due to the following reasons:Football Cheerleader

  1. The coverage is not comparable in terms of policies offered (Accident policy not included in price), policy limits are too low, or it includes unacceptable exclusions from coverage.
  2. The initial quote provided ends up being much lower than the final proposal because it was based on a suppressed number of teams or participants. In the meantime, you have wasted hours of time in providing information just to get the final proposal.

Other advantages of the endorsed AYF/AYC insurance program

Only the endorsed AYF/AYC program offers an instant online proposal, payment, binding of coverage, and issuance of proof of coverage documents and certificates of insurance for field owners in real time. This entire process can take days or weeks with our competitors and can be very frustrating when not having a certificate of insurance is keeping you off the practice field.

All of the Accident claims data from the endorsed program is compiled in a special software program that crunches the numbers in a way to produce meaningful information about how injuries can be prevented and how the game can be modified, if necessary, to promote safety. This data has already been used to illustrate that age only divisions in youth tackle football are no more risky than age/weight divisions. When you participate in the endorsed program, your loss data is used in a meaningful way to improve the safety of the game.

We offer free best-in-industry risk management content including articles, forms, risk management program templates, and training videos on general safety and sex abuse/molestation protection in the risk management section of our website.

The AYF/AYC endorsed insurance program is the industry leader and offers the best protection now and in the future for the players, volunteers, administrators, and youth football industry.

Ice Hockey Face Visors

Should sports disability carrier mandate use?

Sports insurance carriers are often pressured by advocates to require certain safety rules or safety equipment as a prerequisite of coverage.  The latest incident of this occurred in the sports disability insurance market for NHL professional hockey players.  Personal Disability insurance covers loss of income as a result of certain career ending injuries. One specialty Accident carrier decided to mandate the use of face visors as a precondition of extending coverage.  However, Disability broker, Greg Sutton of Sutton Special Risk in Toronto argues that it is not the role of sports insurance carriers to affect change as such. These changes, he said, should be left up to NHL players.

Sutton cites the following reasons for not mandating the face visor as a precondition of Personal Disability coverage:

  • The last career-ending injury that a face visor may have prevented occurred in the 2000 season when Bryan Berard lost most of the vision in one eye after being struck by a stick.  The Disability carrier actually paid a lump sum, which he paid back when he decided to continue his career in 2001-2002.  Therefore, mandating the face visor would not make a significant impact on reducing claim payouts.
  • Concussions are a much larger issue in NHL than injuries that could be prevented by face visors.
  • Sutton personally favors the use of face visors and thinks that the insurance industry should consider discounts for their use. However, the policies are already highly discounted.
  • Currently 73% of the NHL’s 740 players voluntarily wear face visors and the players union may consent to mandatory use with older players being grandfathered in.

In my opinion:

In my experience, sports Accident and General Liability carriers only mandate certain safety rules or safety equipment when their use would prevent catastrophic injuries.  As regards discounts, most don’t want to give up front discounts, as discounts will be provided on the back end when claim reductions work their way into the loss history of an account.

Source: David Shoalts, “Player Safety: Onus for Visor Use Must Stem From Players, Insurance Magnate Says.” theglobeandmail.com. 24 Mar. 2015.

Accident Insurance and Baseball

Spectator injuries not covered by Little League policy

New Jersey’s Elizabeth Lloyd, is suing for more than $150,000 in damages after being hit in the face by a baseball. Although Matthew Migliaccio was only 11 years old at the time of the incident, the lawsuit filed in April claims that Migliaccio’s overthrow from the bullpen was deliberate and reckless.

Lloyd is filing suit to cover for medical costs and pain and suffering, while her husband is suing for the loss of “services, society and consortium.”

The count alleging Migliaccio’s negligence is covered by the family’s Homeowner’s policy, but the other counts are not. Little League has denied any coverage, due to their accident policy only covering staff or players; spectators are not included.

In my opinion:

Little League is correct that spectator injuries are not covered by an Accident policy. However, “Accident like” benefits for spectator injuries up to a limit of $5,000 can be covered if the General Liability policy includes premises medical payments. Otherwise, if damages are greater than $5,000, the only recourse for an injured spectator is to sue. Such lawsuits would be covered under a General Liability policy under the Each Occurrence section. This case is similar to one that one of our league clients had about ten years ago when a spectator was hit in the jaw by an overthrow ball during pre game warm-ups. It was alleged that the league and coaches were negligent in allowing the players to form two lines for warm-ups where one line was too close to an unfenced spectator area. The carrier settled the case for around $300,000 but the damages were extensive.

-John Sadler

Source: Insurance Journal, June 26, 2012

Weight Limits in Youth Tackle Football

Are they necessary for protecting lighter players?

A study of injuries occurring from 2009 to 2011 in American Youth Football, Inc. indicates that the risks of injuries to lighter players is about the same in the weighted (age groups and maximum weights for all players), modified (age groups and maximum weights for ball carriers only), and unlimited (age groups only) divisions. This is the most recent study to shed light on the hotly debated topic within the youth tackle football community on the pros and cons of weighted vs. unlimited divisions.

A prior Mayo Clinic Study concluded that the number one predictor of injuries in youth tackle football is age and that weight groups would not appear to protect players. The study found that the risk of injury to an eighth grader was four times the risk of injury to a fourth grader. Therefore, the higher the age, the higher the chance of injury, and as a result, correct age groupings are critical to limiting injuries.

The American Youth Football, Inc. study tracked the progression of injuries to players of various weight categories through the weighted, modified, and unlimited divisions. The percentage of total injuries to lighter players (both below average and significantly below average) was about the same regardless of the division in which they participated. The percentage of total injuries to below average weight players ranged from 9.25% (weighted) to 11.50% (modified) to 8.96% (unlimited). The percentage of total injuries to significantly below average weight players ranged from 0.00% (weighted) to .30% (modified) to .71% (unlimited).

Most scientists and doctors who have studied the issue speculate that older players are injured more frequently because they run faster, hit harder, and are more aggressive. However, youth players who are larger don’t necessarily impact with more force if they aren’t fast and strong.

American Youth Football, Inc. and Sadler Sports Insurance are dedicated to giving back to the youth football and cheer community with critical studies on safety issues that impact the quality of the sports experience. All participants in the endorsed AYF Accident/General Liability insurance plan contribute data to these important studies.

See the full version of American Youth Football study on injuries to lighter players in weighted vs modified vs unlimited divisions. And you can read our earlier article debating weighted vs unlimited and a link to the Mayo Clinic study.

Source: John Sadler; Sadler Sports Insurance; American Youth Football, Inc. Accident Insurance Claim Database