PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The state's automobile insurers are "profoundly disappointed'' that Governor Chafee chose to sign into law legation placing restrictions on when they can declare a damaged vehicle "a total loss.''
"We are profoundly disappointed that [House bill 5263/Senate bill 465], which is part of the agenda of a few body shops, will become law at the expense of hard-working Rhode Island consumers,'' said Frank O'Brien, vice president of state government relations for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.
Chafee had vetoed a 2012 version of the bill, which also gave the auto-body shops the right to sue if they were unable to win an agreed upon price, for their work, from the insurers.
While that proposal was not passed this year, state lawmakers approved -- and Chafee signed -- legislation that bans the insurers from declaring a vehicle a total loss if it can be restored at a cost that is less than 75 percent of its fair market value before the accident. The only exception: if the owner wants the vehicle declared a total loss.
"By forcing vehicles that are badly damaged to be repaired rather than totaled, this law is designed to increase body-shop revenues. But in the end it is the Rhode Island consumer who will pick up the tab,'' O'Brien said.
"Rhode Islanders already pay among the highest amounts for auto-body repairs in the nation and this legislation supported by the Auto Body Association of Rhode Island (ABARI) could drive costs even higher.
He also lamented the "significant influence'' that "special-interest groups such as ABARI have wielded'' at the Rhode Island State House, where the sister/law partner of former senior deputy House majority leader Peter Petrarca led body-shops' fight again this year. (Their father owns Providence Auto Body.)
O'Brien did not mention Petrarca's name, but said the auto-body shops "have reaped the benefit of bill after bill being passed with the end result being repair costs growing at more than twice the national average and increased hassle and inconvenience for consumers.''