Arizona has the most auto glass replacement insurance claims in the United States, thousands more than larger and more populated states like Texas and California. While this statistic is impressive, considering Arizona’s population is about 20% that of Texas and California and less than half the geographic size of Texas alone, the reasons for the prevalence of windshield claims are relatively straightforward environmental factors. To start, the consistently arid environment of Arizona causes roadways to erode over time. Combine that with high traffic and construction and no auto glass is safe from being hit by flying debris. Rapid heat fluctuation then exacerbates the problem, often causing seemingly benign window chips and cracks to expand into unavoidable glass damage that inevitably leads to more insurance claims.
Those reasons are easy enough to understand; Arizonans are quick to boast their tolerance to the extreme heat they live in year-round to their out-of-state counterparts who visit in the cooler months, and Arizona is widely recognized as a growing state with increasing infrastructure. Texas and California make the list in the top five auto glass claims for relatively self-explanatory reasons too; they are vastly populated states whose sheer size alone is larger than most countries. Why, then, is the state with the second-most auto glass insurance claims… Florida?
It doesn’t make much sense considering the factors that rank Arizona, Texas and California so high. Florida is half the population of California and an exceedingly humid environment causing less flying road debris than Arizona and Western Texas. Is it the hurricanes that have been immortalized by movies like The Perfect Storm (2000) or songs like “Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season” by the late jimmy Buffet? Nope. It seems we see a new “Florida Man Arrested” headline every other day, maybe vandalism is the culprit? Not according the experts.
As it turns out, the high number of auto glass insurance claims in Florida is mostly due to a skyrocket in insurance fraud! According to a survey conducted by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NCIB), auto glass insurance claims grew by 52% from 2015 through 2019. The NCIB said this largely done by dishonest auto glass companies in Florida that have their customers sign an assignment of benefits (AOB) form. An AOB is gives up the customer’s rights to the auto glass company so that they are no longer in control, therefore; they have to recourse if the auto glass company were to inflate the cost of repairs and even the number of claims filed against their customer.
How is this auto glass scap avoidable? Firstly, it is important to work only with licensed and insured vendors (like Roadrunner Auto Glass!). Knowing you the company you do business with is trustworthy and accountable is always critical. Another thing you can do to avoid these scams is to make sure to get everything in writing including repairs, costs, scheduling and payment arrangements according to the NCIB.