The city’s Fire Rescue department in Tampa wants to start charging for services provided at the scenes of automobile accidents.
The fees, which will range from $450 for an accident investigation to $2400 for extracting victims from their cars, will be charged directly to drivers property, liability or casualty insurance coverage.
Mayor Pam Iorio asked the department to cut $2.7-million from its budget this year in anticipation of property tax reform at the state level that’s likely to slash city revenues.
The fire department responds to more than 7, 500 accidents every year. At a 100 percent reimbursement rate, the fees would generate about $2-million a year, LoCicero said. But because not everyone has insurance and not all car insurance policies offer coverage for car crash emergency services, he expects to pull in about half that much.
The fire department also wants to increase charges for transporting patients to local hospitals from the current rate of $330 to $500 plus $5 a mile. The proposed rate would be $600 and $10 a mile.
Maitland and Winter Park have also launched motor vehicle accident fees in recent years, which are becoming more common across the country, much to the chagrin of the insurance industry.
