The St. Louis Metropolitan Taxicab Commission predicts that the raise will be a sizeable one.
A new statement that was released in a letter from the St. Louis Metropolitan Taxicab Commission has revealed the insurance news that they anticipate a rise in the minimum allowable coverage to “significantly increase.”
The regulation change follows an accident in which the Techli CEO was badly injured, said the commission.
The CEO of Techli, Edward Domain, was involved in an accident and was very hurt. Now, the insurance news that is resulting looks as though there will be an increase of a considerable size to the minimum allowable coverage that can be carried by taxi drivers. Domain received the letter which revealed the commission’s actions. Domain has been a strong supporter of Uber’s entry into that market, and has been highly and vocally critical of the commission.
The insurance news started back in 2013, when Domain was injured in a crash while a passenger in a cab.
He filed a lawsuit against the Harris cab company as well as the driver of that particular taxi, Asim Khurshid. Within the filing, Domain expressed that the cabbie had run a red light at the Gravois Avenue and Russell Boulevard intersection, while operating his vehicle at an “excessive” speed and while talking on his cell phone.
The outcome of the lawsuit was a settlement of $200,000, which was the minimum amount of liability coverage that had been required by the taxi commission, at the time. The commission pointed out that the amount was 8 times greater than the minimum policy in Missouri, which was $25,000. Moreover, it was also pointed out that it was more than double the amount of minimum coverage that cabbies require in Kansas City.
That said, in the insurance news making letter letter, the commission expressed that “Nevertheless, we expect to significantly increase those minimums as a result of what we have learned from your experience.” By the time of the writing of this article, no further details were issued with regards to the specific amounts by which the minimum insurance coverage requirements would be increasing.