They're tired of their pain becoming insurance companies' gain.

Like Stephen Nelson of Woodstock, whose mother Glenna Nelson was killed in a 2004 crash on Hwy 400 near Muskoka when a trucker crashed into the car she was travelling in with her husband Doug.

To add "insult to injury," the truck driver's insurance company, Zurich, threatened to sue Doug Nelson for damages, according to Nelson's lawyer, Patrick Brown, who is also president of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association.

MOST OF CLAIM HELD

The company kept $165,000 in deductibles of the $256,711 total in claims awarded to 11 family members, reducing the family share to $91,711.
Nelson was joined by five other loved ones of crash victims yesterday in an emotional press conference at the Ontario Bar Association demanding changes to provincial regulations that govern Ontario's insurance industry.

They want Queen's Park to stop allowing insurance companies to keep deductibles taken from their loss claims.

Provincial insurance regulations were changed by the Ernie Eves Conservative government in 2003, increasing the deductibles auto insurance companies could charge, and the companies have amassed record profits, according to the bar association, the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, and the United Senior Citizens of Ontario.

In 2003, the $7,500 deductible for those killed was upped to $15,000 for awards not exceeding $50,000. For those who were injured, the $15,000 deductible was increased to $30,000 for claims not exceeding $100,000.

"I thought insurance was supposed to be there for the victims after an accident. I was wrong," said Margaret Allison, 92, of Etobicoke, whose husband was severely injured by a driver who ran a red light.

VICTIMS MADE TO PAY

Toronto mom Adrienne Seggie's son Matthew Power, 21, was killed while crossing a street by a speeding car driven by alleged streetracers in November 2006.

Seggie sobbed she and her family have been made to feel like victims three times -- first by the deadly driver, then by the courts, then by a system which allows insurance companies to tie up victims in red tape before charging huge deductibles.

"We're advocating for the elimination of the $15,000 deductible in fatalities and the $30,000 for people who are injured," Brown said. "These are people who are innocent and have no fault in the accidents." (torontosun.com)