Although when a man gets bitten by a dog, it doesn’t make it to the news, but it is certainly big news for insurance firms as it costs them a lot of money, millions of dollars. As was stated by State Farm, which is one of the biggest insurance companies in the United States, the company has paid almost one hundred and ten million dollars in dog bite insurance claims in 2011. As in last year, the company has gotten more than four thousand claims of that kind from different places across the nation. The year before that, this kind of claims has cost the company over ninety million dollars to payout more than 3,500 dog bite claims.
These are the numbers from one company only, but to grasp the magnitude of this problem on a nationwide level, the Insurance Information center has stated that almost five hundred million dollars was paid by insurance firms to cover this kind of insurance claims in 2011. The year before that, in 2010, it mounted up to four hundred million dollars, by looking to these numbers, it is clear that it increases from year to year. As for the state with the most dog bite insurance claims, it doesn’t come as a shock, it is the state of California, as it is considered the most state that has more dogs that the rest of the American states. According to Eddie Martinez from State Farm Insurance, California led the way in 2011 by having more than five hundred claims, and a total payout that was equal to twenty million dollars. These numbers indicate a 31 % increase from 2010.
According to statistics from the Disease Control Center, almost 4.5 million individuals get dog bites annually. Almost half of that number is little kids. The statistics also state that almost eight hundred thousand of them require medical attention, and half of that number will actually need some kind of treatment, and sixteen of them die as a result of the dog bites. As mentioned a large percentage of the people who get bitten are children, especially the kids whose age varies from five years to nine years, right after this age slot, the age group that is most likely at risk of dog bites are seniors.
Right after seniors, comes the carriers, as according to the numbers, in the last two years, more than 5,600 letter carriers have been bitten by dogs on the line of duty. The state of L.A has recorded the largest number of dog bites to letter carriers, as it scored eighty three cases, followed by the state of San Diego with sixty eight bites.
