Canadian Underwriter
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Taking Chances


January 31, 2012   by Laura Kupcis


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Adjusters are making different choices when it comes to ensuring their safety than they did in the past, but whether it is enough to keep them out of harm’s way remains to be seen.

While an independent adjuster is not rushing into a burning building like a firefighter or meeting strangers alone during a showing of a house like a real estate agent would, they are still often put into situations that most other people are not. Adjusters are often one of the first on the scene of a fire loss (after the fire department), traipsing through the charred building. They can be found on the side of the road or highway after a truck rollover or car accident measuring skid marks adjacent to a live lane. Other times they are in the home of a claimant, and while the insurance company has information on this person, and something of a history, there is still potential for danger if the claimant becomes irate or violent.

But, we’ve come a long way as an industry from where we used to be with respect to adjuster safety.

“I have seen changes over the years — for the better — and improvements in the safety of the adjuster,” said Paul Tiller, vice president of operations for Ontario with Granite Claims Solutions. “I think there is still a long way to go for our industry as a whole in tightening up and making things better and safer for our adjusters out in the field.”

What used to be acceptable

There has been, to some degree, a failure over the years to identify safety as an issue of focus with respect to independent adjusters. Part of this, according to Greg Merrithew, managing director or Arctic West Adjusters, is because there aren’t a lot of reports about adjusters being injured on the job site. “As a rule, we are fairly cautious people,” Merrithew, the president of the Canadian Independent Adjusters’ Association (CIAA), said. “We see what happens when people don’t take care of themselves, their equipment and their homes. But it doesn’t mean we are immune to being injured.”

In the interest of getting the job done, adjusters would put themselves in some rather unsafe situations — some that could have immediate ramifications and others that might not pose an issue until years down the road.

“I have been at this for 33 years and I have never done anything safety-wise short of doing highway investigations wearing an orange vest,” said Fred Plant, president of Plant Hope Adjusters. “I have gone into burnt-out structures, where I probably shouldn’t have, I have been in some pretty vile conditions on loss situations, that I probably shouldn’t have been around, and I can’t say — because I am not stupid — that I didn’t know the difference. But at the time, I was there to get the job done, so I just did the job and moved on.”

Adjusters would regularly walk into fire scenes without a respirator or any other type of protection. “It was just the industry accepted thing to do,” Tiller said. “Nobody really questioned it.”
They would walk through breathing the fumes of any number of items or chemicals that had been consumed in the fire. “Three years ago, I know I was breathing in some nice vermiculite,” said David Porter, vice president of the Western region for Granite Claims Solutions. “It really hit home for me, when one of my guy’s came in and said he had lost his dad to mesothelioma, which was directly related to his activities as a contractor working with drywall and the compound.”

Adjusters could also frequently be found climbing up ladders without any safety harnesses, taking photos of a roof after a fire or other loss. They would walk onto a site, without taking stock of their surroundings, leaving them at risk of falling through the floor of a building.

Other times they would head out onto an accident scene where there was a recovery being done and find themselves directly beside a live traffic lane, taking photos and measurements.

Using common sense

While there have been some changes in legislation, and companies are realizing the importance of implementing safety procedures and requirements as a means of protecting their adjusters, there is still some onus placed on the adjuster when it comes to protecting their own safety. A key component is simply common sense.

“We have a job to do, but you are not going to put yourself in harm’s way for the sake of getting a picture or completing the assignment,” Tiller said. “If it is dangerous, you don’t do it.”

The very nature of the job — the fact that every day brings something new — can serve as both a positive and negative of the job. “We are an expert in nothing and have knowledge about everything,” Tiller said. So, for this reason, an adjuster must defer to the experts on site to obtain knowledge about what is happening on a site. Before even approaching a scene, an adjuster should check with the expert on scene to find out if there are any dangers and what those are. From there, an adjuster can decide whether they should enter the scene with protective equipment on, or wait until a safer time to do so. Blair McGregor, British Columbia regional manager for Kernaghan Adjusters, agrees that gathering information before attending a scene to learn the risks is imperative. “It’s a personal responsibility to assess what you are getting into,” McGregor said. “So you have to do a bit of homework about the processes and premises that you are going into.” Once on scene, it is a matter of using all the senses to do an assessment of what is involved, he continued. Review any site plans and drawings, and physically review the site.

For John Seyler, president of ProFormance Specialty Claims, there are three categories of exposures that pose serious risks to the health and safety and occupational safety of adjusters. These include: The direct physical risk with insureds and claimants; the workplace exposures; and environmental risks. “It’s really important for all three categories, for adjusters to do a risk assessment,” Seyler, second vice president of the Canadian Independent Adjusters’ Association (CIAA) suggested. “It’s not any different than a risk manager would assess a risk. The adjuster has to go through the same mental process of risk assessment based on the environment they are entering into.”

Physical risk

Interviewing claimants

Adjusters are always put into a position where they are meeting strangers, insureds and claimants they don’t know. And no matter the claimant, adjusters are charged with treating them all the same. Which, for the most part, is easy enough — most people are courteous and gracious. However, there are always those that test the limits or, frankly, instil fear in the adjuster.

When doing a risk assessment of the situation at hand, if the adjuster feels at all uncomfortable, they should be meeting in a public place, taking along a second adjuster or having the claimant meet at the adjuster’s office.

Independents have interviewed claimants, not only in strange houses, but at incarceration facilities or in psychiatric institutions. A claimant might see the adjuster as an adversary to their end goal, making the meeting a confrontational one rather than a simple interview process. While Seyler has never been in a physical altercation with a claimant or insured, he has been threatened, which is “disconcerting.” Generally, he will try and diffuse the situation at first, if someone is yelling and swearing at him, by lowering his voice and not being confrontational in return. Allow the claimant time to gain control of themselves emotionally. &ldqu
o;That is one of the skill sets that an adjuster develops,” Seyler said. “We deal with people and we understand how different people react in different situations.”

If that fails to yield results, and Seyler is still concerned that the situation might get out of hand, he will withdraw from the situation completely and try to re-engage the person at a later date when they have had some time calm down.

When going out to a claim, park on the road, not in the insured’s driveway, with the vehicle pointing away from the premises, McGregor said. This will ensure that the adjuster can readily access the vehicle and drive away. He has known adjusters who have parked in the driveway and been blocked in. Then, when the situation gets out of hand, they cannot leave the scene. He remembers one adjuster who ran out onto the street to call the police and the people he had been talking to came out and vandalized his vehicle. Another adjuster was sitting in his vehicle after having conducted a neighbourhood survey about an accident, when the subject of the accident tapped on his window and “cold socked him.” He had a broken nose, when all he thought was that someone just wanted to ask him a question.

Because adjusters are frequently alone on the road or meeting with claimants at their homes or places of business, many adjusting companies have implemented a policy where adjusters need to check-in frequently.
 “Let people know where you are going to be, what you are going to be doing and for how long, so that if you are not back within your appointed time, there can be a follow-up,” said Teri Mitchell, president of the CIAA’s Ontario region.

Workplace exposures

While most adjusting companies will take measures to ensure the health and safety of their staff while in the office, ensuring the safety of their staff when out on site is a little more difficult. It is up to the adjuster to do a risk assessment of the situation, whether they are on a fire scene or an accident, and come up with a plan for their own person health and safety on site. This is a two-fold process, one being the adjuster’s personal equipment and the other being the environmental risk. Is there a risk from chemical exposure? Mould? Organic environmental issue? Is the structure sound?

Building safety

There are many dangers an adjuster can encounter on a site as it pertains to building risk. These can include unsafe buildings due to fire or other loss, or entering into a strange building because of a commercial loss.

Jim Eso, vice president of national property and casualty with Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc, points out that recently a Toronto firefighter fell through the floor of a building in what was considered a relatively minor fire. This is not far off from a situation that adjusters might find themselves in. “It’s really a matter of being very aware of our surroundings and our limitations,” Eso said.

“You’re an adjuster, not a construction worker,” McGregor adds. “You need to look at things, assess, maybe take some measurements and some photographs. You are not there to bang nails in, and you can do a lot of what you need to do from a relatively safe distance. You don’t have to stand on a burnt-out floor to tell that the building is severely damaged.”

An adjuster might end up in a commercial plant or factory trying to understand the workflow in order to fully determine whether there is a resolution to the damage or is it a total loss. While the plant manager understands all the inner workings, the adjuster is putting their safety in the hands of someone else. They are on a shop floor, potentially surrounded by heavy equipment or forklifts. What if there is an emergency? Where are the exits? Are there safety risks? Environmental risks? “You have to be able to, as an adjuster, go in and recognize and assess that risk,” Seyler said. “Make sure you are taking responsibility for your own personal protection by ensuring you have the right personal protective equipment.”

Having a hard hat and steel toed boots can mean the difference between being safe and being exposed to injury.

Road safety

When adjusters are working near live lanes, it is governed by the Ontario Traffic Manual’s Book 7 (Temporary Conditions), which is intended to protect workers and motorists while they are working on a highway, Seyler said. One of the fundamentals of the safety program is setting up a work zone. This could include a warning to approaching motorists that there is a work zone ahead, that there is a safety zone to protect the workers, a transition zone where motorists are leaving the area, and then an exit zone where normal traffic flow has resumed, Seyler explained.

An adjuster who handles transportation claims not only has to worry about their safety with respect to live lanes, but they also have to worry about dangerous goods on site. They might show up at the scene of a tanker rollover and not know what was being transported. There is usually a placard on the truck with Health Canada’s Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) coding, but an adjuster must have an understanding of what those codes mean. If an adjuster is “lucky” enough to have a rollover in a large urban area, the fire department will have an environmental or a hazardous response unit, and while they are protecting themselves, they will, by default, be protecting the adjuster, Seyler said. However, most times an adjuster will arrive on the scene and be granted just as much access as the emergency response professionals, meaning they must understand the dangers: Which way is the wind blowing? Are they downwind from the tanker? Is there an explosion risk? Is there a risk that the adjuster could be overcome with fumes?

Personal safety

Adjusters are forever on the move, heading from one claim to the next. This means a vast amount of time spent in the car. It also means their car is a mobile office. Between logging hundreds of kilometres a week and having to conduct all business from the car on a smart phone, tablet device or laptop, the risks for an adjuster’s safety can compound. The laws across the country have changed over the last year or so, depending on the province, forcing adjusters to only use their phones via a hands-free device. Instead of conducting business while driving from one place to another, adjusters must now pull over and park in order to take notes. “That’s a big change, because it has an impact on our workflow and on our capacity to take in claims,” Eso said. “It’s a bit of a game-changer for the adjusters in terms of how they deal with their day-to-day information flow.”

Ken Lloyd, AVP of head office administration at Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc is quick to remark just how “fortunate” adjusters are — at Crawford alone there are hundreds of adjusters on the road on any given day, all of them facing potential hazards, yet there are, thankfully, very few accidents. In fact, Lloyd can think of only one in the last 12 months, which was an adjuster who slipped and fell in a parking lot on a winter day.

Unfortunately, McGregor lost a friend who was killed in a car accident heading out to a claim on a snowy day last year.

While companies do try and instil the importance of car maintenance and snow tires, they only have so much control over an adjuster’s personal property. Thankfully, the tragedies and accidents are few and far between, McGregor said.

Environmental risks

When entering a building, home or plant, there are any number of chemicals, solvents or other toxic substances an adjuster could face. Once again, step one is to do a risk assessment to recognize the hazards that are in the
particular situation.

Airborne dangers

When entering a fire scene, wear a respirator. Everything has been burning for who knows how long, and walking in assuming that there is simply the smell of smoke, can leave the adjuster at risk for any number of issues. “The challenge is, you don’t know, as an independent adjuster, when you are first going into these loss sites what’s in the atmosphere on a fire loss,” Merrithew said. “You should always wear respiratory gear when you go into a contaminated atmospheric environment, including sewer backups.” This does not mean a painter’s mask, Merrithew points out. There are any number of particulates out there, that are biological in nature, that will penetrate a painter’s mask.

Adjusters should invest in a properly fitted mask with respiratory ventilators.

“There are particles in the air that are floating around, you don’t know if it’s got asbestos in it, you don’t take the chance,” Porter said, adding that even in a smoky environment without asbestos, the adjuster’s lungs are “toast” after walking through that scene.

If an adjuster is out on a site where there is toxic gas, a respirator won’t cut it and they should leave the scene.

“Unless they are properly certified for that particular environment, they need to know where the line is drawn,” Eso said. “To a degree it’s intuitive, because our adjusters are trained to want to help people. Everybody wants to get the information about what caused the (event). But sometimes it is a matter of personal safety needing to come first. That’s something we reinforce to our adjusters on a regular basis during their training.”

Company training

Training is essential. The end result is an adjuster who recognizes that they are valued by their employer who has invested the time to protect them, and has a knowledge base for the types of hazards they might encounter.

Merrithew has identified eight areas of training that an adjuster should receive:
•     fire losses;
•     biological losses;
•    mould and asbestos contaminated sites;
•    motor vehicle accident investigations;
•    roof claims;
•     water and sewer backup in confined spaces;
•    the occupational health and safety act in an adjuster’s jurisdiction; and
•     WHMIS.

“The principals of adjusting companies, whether they are large or small, should recognize that the safety of their employees is a priority,” Seyler said. He notes that health and safety should always be a priority and  companies should have a plan in place, which includes training. “Doing dangerous goods training is essential in trying to protect our most important asset, which is our people,” he said. “Not only is it the responsibility of the employer to do that, I also think that this training facilitates better adjusters who are more knowledgeable.”

Granite Claims Solutions has implemented an orientation program for employees — with all new hires going through the program, as well — which includes a section on safety, where a variety of different scenarios an adjuster might find themselves in are discussed. Any new legislation will be sent out to field staff from human resources through the vice presidents of each region.

Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc. also offers corporate knowledge and management centre courses, which promote safety and training for adjusters. There is a focus on loss site safety, which covers a number of areas, including property losses, driving, scoping, being out in the field and ensuring the right equipment is on-hand. For new hires, there is a week-long training school, of which part of that includes safety. This includes going over what an adjuster should and should not do when they are on the job and what they should have at all times in their car in a storage bin to ensure that they can do their job safely.

During the training, Steve Scullion, director of training and employee development at Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc., will go over a number of scenarios with the adjusters that they might come across in the course of their work. How would adjusters respond to a particular situation? What are the precautions they would need to take to ensure their safety? What is the best way to approach the claim? It offers tips on what to do from a practical perspective, as well as what tools an adjuster might need to complete their job.  

For its part, CIAA’s Ontario region will be discussing, at a future meeting, what adjusters might want to have on-hand to ensure their protection and safety. This list will be posted online for easy access for members, Mitchell said.

“The main thing I would like to see overall, through our various professional organizations, some sort of rules set down for safety of adjusters specific to our industry. We are exposed to so many different things,” Tiller said.

“We do have a job to do, but the safety comes far before completing the assignment,” Tiller said. “We don’t want somebody being permanently injured, or worse yet killed, just trying to get the job done.”


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