Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to everybody and have a wonderful New Years!  I am currently vacationing and will probably not be posting until later in the week, if not until next year =P

Bill Mahan

Fire and Accident Investigation Services

So why exactly are these kinds of services helpful to you? Generally, insurance companies find the most use from the services of a forensic engineer or accident investigator. What they can provide you with is an excellent way to investigate the legitimacy of a suspect claim. Especially in harsh economic times, people file fraudulent claims hoping that the payout will be quick and no questions will be asked. ESI has investigated thousands of claims, and found that a large percentage of the claims that an insurance company may feel is not genuine, is in fact fraudulent. Most adjusters or people on staff, however, do not have the know-how of an Engineer when it comes to physical properties of materials, weather-related incidents, or proper construction procedures. Having a good forensic engineer on call can drastically reduce the amount of claims being paid out, and can help overall reduce rates.

Fire investigators are an excellent tool for the insurance companies as well. There is rarely a dispute of whether or not a fire actually occurred, however, with fire investigations it is a matter of origin and cause. It must be determined whether or not an accellerant was used, but you MUST first determine why a fire happened and where before you can assume anything about whether or not it was intentional.

Motor vehicle accident investigators are a great tool for insurance companies hoping to determine who/what is at fault. It could even be something completely separate from the driver or vehicle itsself, including traffic signals, signs, or even improper road markings.
Example: Sometimes the real cause of an accident can be poor asphalt mixture and have nothing to do with a victim's tires at all.

Winterizing...Why it is important

Winterizing is a very important topic for any homeowner, especially those who like to prevent damage to their home. Water damage is usually the most common complaint during the winter from homeowners who don't take the necessary precautions to prevent it. What happens a lot of the time is the homeowner doesn't shut off the water to outside lines for things such as sprinkler systems or hoses, and when it gets really cold out the pipes can pretty easily freeze up. Thanks to any chemistry class you may have taken in middle or high school, you know that water expands a great deal when frozen, and pipes cannot accommodate this. Once they burst, they patiently wait for a bit warmer weather, and once it thaws you have quite a mess on your hands. The water pressure is already pretty high, so the hole in the pipe provides an excellent route for it to escape. (Imagine turning on a hose inside of your house).

Some quick steps to winterizing your home are:
- Purge sprinkler system lines (you will need a professional to do this)
- Turn off water to any outside lines
- Put hoses inside the garage, definitely do not leave them hooked up to the house!
- Close your garage door when not in use
- Get your furnace checked out before the cold hits!
- Seal exterior cracks and crevices
- Insulate your attic better to keep heat from escaping out the top
- Seal doors and windows better
- Never let your home drop below about 50-60 degrees if gone on vacation

That about does it, have a good winter with these tips!!

Car Accidents Abundant and Unnecessary

With the recent snow here in the midwest, we once again get the opportunity to venture out to our cars under the very real threat of dying before we get there. But what's best about the winter time is that it doesn't stop there. Once we finally arrive at our vehicles, we are generally distraught to find out that now we have to either A) Start warming up the car, then scrape off the ice of B) Scrape off the ice then warm up the car. Now with either choice you are a loser, and here is why. Should you have gone with the latter option, you will scrape off your windows, and with frozen hands climb into the frigid cold you pay hundreds of dollars for every month. If you went with choice A, you will hop in, turn it on (thinking that the heater will be going nicely by the time you're done scraping) and get back out into the cold and scrape your heart out. You KNOW that whatever way you do it your car won't even be toasty and comfortable until you're home anyways, unless of course you commute across town, in which case I don't even feel like talking about what you experience everyday.

Once you are on your merry way, sliding everywhere, you wonder why nobody has caught the person that goes around to every intersection applying a completely invisible, yet very real, sheet of pure ice. God help you if you happen to have a passenger. Passengers like to complain and point out every obvious object, person, or streetlight you may come upon as a driver. I'm not sure what causes a passenger to become Captain Obvious the moment they sit down next to you, but we'll just withold judgement until we're finally home.

Accident Investigations

Another hot topic for forensic engineers is accident investigations! These kinds of investigations can range from fire, vehicle, boat, plane, etc... and picking the right expert is more than half the battle. You may wish to call a forensic engineer to investigate an accident for you if you are an insurance company, and suspect you are dealing with a fraudulent claim. Overall making sure that your customers are not trying to cheat you out of money is something that can surprisingly done cheaply, and quite efficiently. The cost benefits of having an engineer inspect the suspicious claims will always cost the insurance company less, and is an excellent reason to get the checked!