Insurance Companies Should Pay for Corrosion Correction, Bloch Says

Noted auto safety expert Byron Bloch, keynote speaker for the 2006 AGRSS Conference, has appeared as an auto safety consultant on such television news programs as ABC News' "20/20," "Primetime Live" and "Nightline" as well as CBS News' "60 Minutes" and "Public Eye" and NBC News' "Dateline NBC." He has been a safety expert for 30 years, consulting and testifying in court cases regarding auto defects, and he is a court-qualified expert in auto safety design and vehicle crashworthiness and has testified at Congressional hearings and to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

He recently spoke with AGRR magazine about automotive safety and specifically the role of glass, addressing, in part, his thoughts on insurance companies' coverage of corrosion repair during windshield replacement. The following is an excerpt from the interview, which will run in full in the next issue of AGRR.

AGRR: The AGRSS Standard requires that no replacements be done in situations where corrosion will jeopardize the safety of the installation. Yet, many shops have difficulty getting insurance companies to reimburse for such a correction, as well as other safety issues. What advice would you have for them?

BB: I recognize the problem and it is a very important one because the bonding of the windshield to its periphery can be significantly deteriorated if there is any corrosion, which keeps the glass installer from having the ability to make sure the bonding is 100 percent according to the maximum safety specifications. The corrosion issue is something that the insurance companies and the glass installers and glass industry have to seriously talk about and resolve. By that I mean the corrosion has to be taken care of before a replacement windshield is installed. The insurance companies have to recognize that it is a life-and-death issue. Let's say there is so much corrosion that the windshield separates in a rollover accident and the occupant is ejected or the roof buckles because of the windshield separation and the person is killed or becomes a quadriplegic, the liability issues alone, not to mention the humanitarian concerns, should warrant the insurance industry to concur with the glass installers, manufacturers and adhesive suppliers that the corrosion issue should be taken care of at the same time as the installation.

Stay tuned to GlassBYTEs.com for more excerpts from the interview. The full interview will run in the next issue of AGRR magazine.

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Bloch will give the keynote address at the AGRSS Conference on Wednesday, November 1 at 9:15 a.m. at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The AGRSS Conference runs concurrently with the Auto Glass Expo @ NACE and several other key auto glass industry events.

CLICK HERE to register or for more information about the 2006 AGRSS Conference.

CLICK HERE to visit Byron Bloch's automotive safety website.