City Drivers

Living in Baltimore City is a costly privilege.Property taxes are twice as high as in any other Maryland jurisdiction. Automobile insurance rates also are the state's highest. Add to that inadequate public schools and the state's hTC worst crime problem and you have the reasons for the continuing exodus of middle-class residents to the neighboring counties, which is bleeding the city's tax base dry.Nearly five years ago, a group called the City-Wide Insurance Coalition was formed to find a way for Baltimoreans to lower their car insurance rates.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake defended the city's nearly $20 million in revenue from its booming speed camera program Wednesday, placing the blame on motorists who refuse to slow down. "It's a minor inconvenience for people who routinely break the law," the mayor said of the $40 speeding tickets triggered by the city's 83 cameras. She spoke after the city's spending board received documents showing a multimillion-dollar increase from the cameras. The city got $19.2 million in revenue from the program over the past year - a nearly tenfold increase in the three years the cameras have been operating.

A study released today says that more automobile accident claims are filed against Baltimore residents than Baltimore residents file against motorists from other jurisdictions."

A 17-year-old girl died and two other teenagers suffered critical injuries after a stolen car in which they were riding crashed into a tree Thursday night on Belair Road, according to Baltimore police. Lishinia Miller, 17, was one of four occupants in the 1991 four-door Lexus at the time of the crash, reported at 8:47 p.m. in the 1900 block of Belair Road, between East North Avenue and Sinclair Lane. She was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she was pronounced dead just before midnight, police spokesman Detective Kevin Brown said.

Last night's Baltimore City Council meeting was punctuated by an angry outburst from the president of a group that's pushing for a publicly owned, non-profit insurance cooperative for city drivers.Police were called to restore order and A. Robert Kaufman, president of the City Wide Insurance Coalition, was ejected from the meeting.The incident occurred as a beaming Councilman Melvin A. Stukes, D-6th, explained how he and other council members had devised a way for donors to make tax-deductible contributions to raise $60,000 needed for a study of the alternative insurance company for city drivers.

Ever since the Citywide Insurance Coalition proposed that Baltimore cut rates for city drivers by establishing its own, non-profit insurance agency, eerie things have been happening.The coalition was snubbed by several consumer groups it expected to be natural allies.Bizarre stories misrepresenting the group's goals started circulating.A bulk mailing advertising an important meeting disappeared after it had been hand-delivered to the post office.Important segments of the news media virtually ignored the effort.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke has decided that Baltimore should fund an actuarial and marketing study that could lay the groundwork for a non-profit automobile insurance company intended to offer lower premiums to good city drivers.The mayor previously had said he would not commit city money to the effort. He reversed himself this week after meeting with members of the City-Wide Insurance Coalition, who provided new details about the purpose of the study.Coalition members said that they would use its results not just to assess the possibility of starting a non-profit company to write insurance for city drivers -- an idea Mr. Schmoke regards as not feasible -- but to explore another option as well.

The open road has been closed to Truxton Sykes for eight months now, because he can't afford to pay $1,100 a year for auto insurance.Sykes, a 47-year-old northeast Baltimore man, has for years spent his spare time -- and gas money -- driving around town to volunteer in programs to help the homeless and drug abusers.But then he suffered kidney problems and was unable to work last year. He no longer could afford the premium for his automobile insurance and he was forced to sell his blue 1976 Ford.

City drivers could pay 21 percent less for auto insurance if a non-profit company were created to serve Baltimore residents, according to findings from a new study prepared by consumer groups seeking to create the insurer.The much-awaited results, submitted to city officials last week, stem from a report commissioned to test the feasibility of an alternative insurer, which supporters see as a sure-fire method of cutting the highest auto premiums in Maryland. Baltimore residents pay nearly twice as much on average as residents statewide, according to an insurance industry trade group.

The Schmoke administration has rejected a proposal to create a non-profit, city-run automobile insurance company, saying the potential liability to taxpayers outweighs the benefits of lower premiums for drivers.The City Wide Insurance Coalition, which has a membership of 158 consumer groups, had proposed forming the insurance company that would offer car insurance at rates averaging 21 percent less than those charged by other insurers.But the group's proposal, which was studied by the Schmoke administration for eight months, was panned in a three-page rTC report issued this week by the mayor's office.

CONSIDER TWO 30-year-old women: Each is single, has an unblemished driving record and drives to work in a 2002 Toyota Camry insured by Geico General Insurance Co. One woman pays $798 annually for her automobile insurance policy; the other pays 70 percent more - $1,359. The 70 percent difference in cost stems from a single factor - where the two women live. One lives in Timonium, two miles outside the Baltimore Beltway in Baltimore County. The other lives about nine miles to the south, in the city neighborhood of Charles Village.

American Skyline Insurance Co., launched four years ago with exuberant backing from Baltimore leaders concerned that high auto insurance premiums were driving residents from the city, has been halted by state regulators from taking additional policies because of financial problems. The order from the Maryland Insurance Administration forbids American Skyline from renewing current policies when they expire. It remains in effect until the company can prove it is financially solvent. The state insurance commissioner said the company couldn't support its operating costs after losing $27 million in roughly three years and the loss of its lead investor.

A city police officer responding to a reported shooting in Northwest Baltimore was injured yesterday when the police cruiser she was driving collided with a car, whose driver also was hurt, authorities reported. The officer - whose name was not divulged - was traveling north on Park Heights Avenue with emergency lights and siren on about 7 p.m. when her cruiser, moving in a southbound lane, struck the fender of a northbound 1986 Audi turning at Boarman Avenue. Police said the Audi's driver had injuries that were not life-threatening.

Torrential rains last night caused sudden flash floods in Northeast Baltimore, submerging dozens of cars in water as high as 10 feet, forcing some people to swim to safety and filling basements all the way to the ceiling. The worst of the flooding occurred on 35th Street, where high water rushed in a matter of minutes down the 1700 block toward Hillen Road, wreaking havoc but causing only one minor injury. "All of a sudden, it just flooded. It came down the street like God opened an ocean, a gate," said Francine Easter, who lives on the block.

Heading downtown along Pratt Street, Gerald Neily leans on the accelerator of his green Honda Civic. The lights are with him. They're green to the horizon, and Neily wants to catch as many as he can. Because when they turn red, he knows they'll stay red for quite some time. "If you hit a red light, you're there forever," said Neily, a Butchers Hill resident who was a Baltimore transportation planner for 20 years. "Our signal cycles in Baltimore are really long. It affects driver behavior.

Reopening an issue that has divided the legislature for 20 years, Baltimore officials and the state insurance commissioner called yesterday for a change in Maryland law that would lead to lower automobile insurance rates for city residents. Steven B. Larsen, the insurance commissioner, said he has grown frustrated watching the General Assembly do little to bring rates down for city residents, who often pay hundreds of dollars more a year in premiums than residents of suburban or rural areas.

Four years ago, an organization called the City-Wide Insurance Coalition announced it wanted to put an end to Baltimore's sky-high automobile insurance rates -- which often are twice those in the rest of Maryland. Born out of the Rainbow Coalition of Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign, the coalition claimed that city drivers could realize savings of up to 80 percent if a private, non-profit corporation were established to insure city drivers. Many critics say such a claim is poppycock, based on false assumptions and an incomplete understanding of what the insurance business entails.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake defended the city's nearly $20 million in revenue from its booming speed camera program Wednesday, placing the blame on motorists who refuse to slow down. "It's a minor inconvenience for people who routinely break the law," the mayor said of the $40 speeding tickets triggered by the city's 83 cameras. She spoke after the city's spending board received documents showing a multimillion-dollar increase from the cameras. The city got $19.2 million in revenue from the program over the past year - a nearly tenfold increase in the three years the cameras have been operating.

The driver of a cab that careened down a city sidewalk yesterday told police that the gas pedal had stuck to the floor, sending his out-of-control sedan crashing into five teen-agers, three street signs, a building and a tree.Eight people were treated at area hospitals, including five high school students and a passenger in the cab. Police said none of the injuries was life-threatening. One teen-ager suffered two broken legs, a broken collarbone and a broken finger.Left on the sidewalk along Harford Road in Northeast Baltimore were splintered steps, toppled signs and scattered tree limbs -- reminders of a routine cab ride and a morning jaunt to school that turned into pandemonium.

Stanley Rokosz, hauling propane tanks from Waldorf to White Marsh and prohibited from using the Harbor or Fort McHenry tunnels, wanted a quick way to get by Baltimore without driving around the Beltway.He got some advice and elaborate directions from another trucker over breakfast at a truck stop in Jessup -- exit at Interstate 95 by Oriole Park at Camden Yards and cut through the city.The tip earned him a $70 ticket yesterday from Officer David Wallace -- part of an annual crackdown on truckers illegally using city streets as shortcuts to avoid highway backups, tolls and increased chances of getting inspected.