Category Archives: Loss Control

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Learning Through Destruction at FM Global

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FM Global’s Research Campus is one of the more interesting things about the insurance industry. Basically, what the company did was build a giant, airplane-hanger-sized warehouse so it would have a place to blow things up. It’s not all fun and pyromania, however. The real value comes from what FM Global observes.

By testing the destructive potential of certain disaster scenarios, the company is able to better understand how building materials, walls, windows, roofs, houses, warehouses and even entire industrial facilities can be fortified to withstand the worst.

It’s all about loss control, really.

For example, the company might do an experiment to find out how much wind it takes to compromise the structural integrity of the Model ABC Roof Flashing sold by XYZ Company if it is installed with 12 half-inch nails. If the wind exposure (both in MPH and duration) that sends the flashing flying is a realistic figure to expect in a certain location (say, Florida) then you now know that it is not the best building material to use if you’re building a tiki restaurant in South Beach. On the other hand, if the flashing does withstand 160 mph winds for 30 minutes, the company now knows it won’t fail in anything but the most catastrophic storm.

Such knowledge is great for the industry at large — it helps all stakeholders learn how building materials hold up in disasters. And the proprietary results are even better for FM Global — they help the company be extremely confident in its underwriting decisions.

Rudd Bosman explains as much in the video below, which complements a new article on the campus that Fortune published in its latest issue. “We spent well over $100 million in capital expense on this facility. It’s absolutely worth it. It’s where we learn what we need to do to prevent losses from happening. That knowledge is invaluable.”

A few years ago, our Editor in Chief Morgan O’Rourke got the chance to tour FM Global’s Research Campus on a day where some serious explosions were taking place.

Outside, it was a quiet, clear January day in the woods of western Rhode Island. But hidden just off the road, in a relatively nondescript structure, I stood in awe some 100 feet away from the largest fire that I had ever seen. A fuel leak had caused a blaze nearly three stories high with flames so intense that the facility’s emergency sprinkler systems were actually making it worse. When the water came in contact with the burning fuel, it caused a reaction much like what happens when water is splashed on a grease fire in the kitchen. Huge fireballs erupted, threatening to engulf the ceiling and the sensitive machinery located there. Even from my distant vantage point, it was very hot and very impressive. It was also a simulation. Welcome to just another day at the office for the scientists and engineers at the FM Global Research Campus.

Check out the rest of Morgan’s feature for more on the most destructive place in insurance.

You can also find more about the campus on FM Global’s website.

Distracted Driving on Company Time . . .

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. . . A Risk Manager’s Worst Nightmare.

That was the title of the webinar I participated in yesterday, hosted by Risk and Insurance. Speaking on the topic were:

  • Dexter Hamilton, member and general/commercial litigator at Cozen O’Connor
  • Jami McClellan, senior risk engineering consultant at Zurich
  • Paul Bomberger, editor in chief of Risk and Insurance

Without wasting any time, the panel began discussion about various studies published in the recent past that highlight the dangers of distracted driving. Not only is it hazardous to those behind the wheel, but if the driver is talking on a work-issued phone, or about work-related issues, or driving a company-owned vehicle, the company stands liable.

According to webinar, there is no difference in distraction between hand-held and hands-free devices. In not-so-obvious news, distracted driving is one of the top insurance losses — averaging $100,000 per incident.

The panelists highlighted several cases of companies that were required to pay hefty sums for on-the-road accidents caused by their employees.

One such case involved a brokerage firm whose employee was driving his personal vehicle but talking about company business on his cell phone. The driver hit and severely injured a motorcyclist while talking on his phone. His employer was forced to pay $500,000 to settle the case.

“There’s simply going to be no sympathy once an accident happens,” said Hamilton. “And companies must realize that brand destruction is very critical. A high-profile accident can harm the brand everyone worked so hard to maintain and promote.”

For another example we can turn to the case of Tiburzi v Holmes, which involved Jeffrey Knight, who was a driver for Holmes Transport & Logistics, and Mark Tiburzi, who was driving his personal vehicle at the time. Knight caused an accident that injured 15 and killed three in St. Louis, Missouri. One of those injured was Tiburzi, who suffered severe traumatic brain injury. The cause of the accident? Along with excessive speed and driving over the alloted on-duty hours, distraction was blamed — Knight had looked away from the road to check his cell phone. The jury awarded Tiburzi $18 million — to be paid by Knight’s employer.

For more on this topic, check out “Unsafe at Any Speed” in Risk Management magazine.

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Airlines Lose Millions, Taxi Drivers Make Thousands

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The numerous airlines that have been grounded since a volcano under an Icelandic glacier erupted Wednesday are not covered by insurance.

Typical airline insurance policies would cover damage to planes if they flew through a volcanic ash cloud, but so far no plane has been damaged because of the ban on flights in the vicinity of the cloud, insurance companies and experts said. And airlines don’t have insurance for grounding planes due to natural events because policies would be very expensive, they said.

Thousands of flights have been cancelled into and out of Europe and hundreds of thousands of passengers have been stranded at airports throughout the world since Wednesday. Though those passengers may have trip insurance, the airlines cannot file a claim for this major business interruption (their business interruption insurance, if they have it, only covers the grounding of planes due to physical damage to the aircraft).

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The airlines are facing huge losses in revenue at a time when the industry is still struggling with reduced demand.

The Air Transport Association, or IATA, which represents some 230 airlines and 93% of scheduled international global air traffic said that at current levels of disruption, its initial and conservative estimate of the financial impact on airlines is in excess of 0 million per day in lost revenues.

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However, it said airlines would be hurt further as it they will incur added costs for re-routing of aircraft, care for stranded passengers and aircraft at various ports.

But there is a silver lining, however thin. Scandinavian ferries are fully booked and hotel owners are charging upwards of $800 a night while taxi drivers pocket $5,000 fares. So while airlines lose millions, stranded passengers confront desperation and the European economy takes yet another hit, there are those making the best of this natural catastrophe.

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Grasshoppers a Major Risk for Western Farmers

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Officials throughout the West are claiming that grasshoppers will likely hatch in bigger numbers than any year since 1985 — a year that saw “hundreds of millions of dollars in damage when [the grasshoppers] devoured corn, barley, alfalfa, beets — even fence posts and the paint off the sides of barns.”

The article in the Wall Street Journal cites a federal survey of 17 states taken last fall that found dangerously high numbers of adult grasshoppers in farming states throughout the West. Taking into account the fact that the female grasshopper lays hundreds of eggs — the spawning of these insects could be catastrophic.

A rancher near Buffalo, Wyo., Mr. Fieldgrove was enjoying a banner year last summer when, seemingly out of nowhere, crawling carpets of hoppers marched onto his rangeland — a harbinger of this year’s infestation. In three weeks, they had eaten every blade of tender, nutritious grass on his 10,000 acres. They also ate his wife’s lilac bushes. “They took it all,” Mr. Fieldgrove said.
Unable to find enough grass, Mr. Fieldgrove’s 200 young calves began to lose weight. He ended up selling them at auction several weeks earlier — and 60 pounds per calf lighter — than planned. And he had to import hay to feed the mother cows he kept on his ranch for the winter.
The grasshoppers cost Mr. Fieldgrove about $30,000 in profit, he said — and local agricultural officials are warning him it could be worse this year.

A rancher near Buffalo, Wyo., Mr. Fieldgrove was enjoying a banner year last summer when, seemingly out of nowhere, crawling carpets of hoppers marched onto his rangeland — a harbinger of this year’s infestation. In three weeks, they had eaten every blade of tender, nutritious grass on his 10,000 acres. They also ate his wife’s lilac bushes. “They took it all,” Mr. Fieldgrove said.

Unable to find enough grass, Mr. Fieldgrove’s 200 young calves began to lose weight. He ended up selling them at auction several weeks earlier — and 60 pounds per calf lighter — than planned. And he had to import hay to feed the mother cows he kept on his ranch for the winter.

The grasshoppers cost Mr. Fieldgrove about $30,000 in profit, he said — and local agricultural officials are warning him it could be worse this year.

Wyoming is one state that refuses to lay in wait for the pesky critters. The cowboy state has allocated $2.7 million towards suppression efforts, including aerial spraying of pesticides. But if Wyoming, along with other western states such as Idaho, Montana, Nebraska and South Dakota, do not receive additional funding for grasshopper suppression, results could be disastrous.

Picture 4 2010 may, unfortunately, become the year of the grasshopper, just as 2005 was the year of the locust. In that year, locusts devastated farms and agricultural businesses from western Africa to eastern Australia, a topic Risk Management covered with an in-depth feature.

We’ll be keeping an eye on this potential agricultural catastrophe — check back for updates.