safety – Weber Insurance

How to Avoid a Spooky Insurance Claim on Halloween

Halloween can be some people’s favorite holiday. Whether it’s fun sized candy, making your own costume, setting up spooky decorations inside or outside your home or carving pumpkins, Halloween brings many of us joy. However, this holiday can increase your risk for an expensive liability claim if you’re not careful. Follow these five tips to ensure your holiday is fun and safe.

Prep Your Home for Trick-or-Treaters. Even if you don’t decorate the outside of your home, be sure your sidewalks, driveway and the entrance leading up to your front door is clear. You are liable if a child or adult trips on a broken branch, garden house or electrical cord on your property.

Keep Your Pets Indoors. Sometimes animals can be frightened by strangers or unusual noises. To avoid a dog bite claim, keep your animals inside in a separate room. The door bell ringing several times an hour can get your animal too excited or scared. Be sure they get a treat too.

Use LED candles. This can help prevent any trick-or-treater from knocking over lit candles close to your home. For your carved pumpkin, LED candles are much easier to use and can prevent any unwanted burns compared to lighting a candle.

Drive Slowly. If you find yourself driving home in the dark on Halloween night, be extra cautious of children and adults walking around your neighborhood who may not be using proper lighting. Be aware of your speed and don’t be a distracted driver.

Carry the right tools. If you plan to go out for trick-or-treating, be sure you have a flash light and a fully charged cell phone in the case you need to make an emergency call. Stay on the sidewalks and avoid walking through yards.

Happy Halloween!

Weber Insurance Corporation represents over a dozen A-rated, financially sound insurance providers to help you find the best insurance coverage that fits your needs and budget. Whether you are just looking for a simple auto insurance policy, or need auto coverage for your home, autos, and business, we have customizable insurance products designed specifically for you. Visit us online anytime.

How to Protect Your Home & Property from Wildfires

Wildfire Prevention in Pennsylvania Wildfires occur every year and summer season is also known as fire season. Each year millions of acres across the country are scorched by both nature as well as human caused fire. By knowing how to minimize losses, human caused fires can drastically decrease with the proper education. Use these simple steps.

Equipment or toys can spark a wildfire

Lawn mowers, weed-eaters, chain saws, welders, tractors, dirt bikes, and more can all cause sparks. Don’t mow dry grass or weeds. When you are maintaining your yard, avoid dry yard debris buildup.

If you are using a tractor, dirt bike or welder, avoid driving or using your welder near dry grass or brush.

Keeping your Home Safe from Wildfire Damage

Use fire-resistant building material for your home.

The roof and exterior surface need to be composed of non-combustible or fire resistant materials. This would include brick, stone, aluminum, tile, sheet iron, asphalt or slate. If your home is composed of wood or cedar, consider this a risk. Homes that are located in especially fire prone areas can escape damage by being entirely built of concrete and stone.

Maintain Your Roof

When your roof is filled with leaves, pine needles, branches, moss, you are increasing your risk for wildfire damage. Be sure to avoid letting these items collect on your roof.

Keep your Property Free of Dead Plants or Trees

Tree branches should be kept to a height of 15 feet. Also, be sure tree branches aren’t near your chimney. If a branch is within 10 feet of the flue opening of the stove or chimney, remove it.

Keeping things like sheds and wood piles at least 30 feet away from your home helps reduce the chances of a fire jumping from one structure to the next.

It is important to understand the limits of your insurance policies as many natural disasters like floods or earthquakes require a special insurance policy while wildfires are generally covered under the comprehensive portion of a homeowner’s insurance policy. The price of the policy may be higher if you live in an area that is prone to yearly fires or if a fire station is far away.

Who is responsible if my neighbor’s tree falls onto my house?

Neighbors are great! You can count on them to keep an eye on your place while you’re away, let out a furry friend or even borrow some last minute ingredients! Shoot, some of your neighbors are probably some of your closest friends. But having neighbors can sometimes cause some uncomfortable exchanges.

With winter here and spring on the way, often high winds occur when the cold air and warmer air mix together. This, mixed with sometimes wet soil can bring a vulnerable tree toppling down. So, what happens when YOUR tree drops down onto your neighbor’s house, car, fence or other property? Who is liable for that and which insurance company should you call?

Well, the answer is most of the time quite simple. Whoever owns the damaged property is responsible to get the damage repaired – not the owner of the tree.

Let’s look at some specific examples:

Your tree falls onto your neighbor’s house: Neighbor responsible to mitigate damages and call their own insurance company.

Your neighbor’s tree falls on your car: You should call your insurance company.

Now, proving any sort of negligence on the part of the tree owner is exceedingly rare. Trees die but can remain strong and standing for many years. If you or your neighbor has a tree that has died and you’re worried about it, you should call out an arborist. If the tree is the neighbors, have a conversation about the risks it poses and potential harm it could cause if it fell. Perhaps this will remedy the problem.

If you have other questions about insurance, call the insurance agents at Weber Insurance Corporation. Weber Insurance Corporation represents over a dozen A-rated, financially sound insurance providers to help you find the best insurance coverage that fits your needs and budget. Whether you are just looking for a simple auto insurance policy, or need auto coverage for your home, autos, and business, we have customizable insurance products designed specifically for you. Visit us online anytime.

Auto Safety Tips

Automobile Safety Tips

End Distracted Driving:

Contrary to popular belief, the brain does not truly multi-task. The National Safety Council has estimated that 26 percent of all crashes involve cell phone use while driving. Talking on a cell phone, either hands-free or hand-held, is estimated be involved in 21% of crashes – with an additional 5% for texting. The following tips can help you put an end to distracted driving:

Make a commitment to drive cell free
Turn your phone off or put it on silent while driving so you will not be tempted to answer it
When you are in a car with someone using a cell phone while driving, ask them if you can do it for them or if their call can wait
If you are talking to someone that you know is driving, tell him or her to hang up and call you later

Don’t Tailgate:

The person in-front of you is stuck too. The closer you get to his/her bumper, the greater chance you have of causing an accident. Do not be in a hurry to injury another person, or yourself. Especially if you can avoid it.

Know The Characteristics of an Aggressive Driver:

Cutting off drivers, tailgating, unnecessary or excessive horn use, rapid lane changes and speeding. If this is you, stop. If not, stand clear.

Encourage Good Behavior By Being Friendly and Courteous On The Road:

Give up a parking spot. Or when it is safe to do so, allow other drivers to move into your lane. Just be cautious as other drivers around you may not realize what you are doing. Being nice, but safe, reinforces similar behavior in others.

Normalize the Undesirable:

Traffic, slow drivers and fast ones are all to be expected and are a normal part of being on the road in the driving community. Accept it. Consider leaving five minutes early to get to your destination as you will be more tolerant when you’re not running late.

Don’t Personalize Other People’s Behavior:

Just because a driver cut you off does not mean they meant to or did it to enrage you. Consider other explanations such as the driver are en route to an emergency; there’s a crisis a parent is trying to get to at home; or simply, the driver did not see you.

With an Auto Insurance policy from Weber Insurance, you can rest easy knowing we’ve got you covered!

Call 888-860-0400 or Click today to find out additional ways Weber Insurance can save you money on Auto Insurance.

Winter Weather Driving Hazards

Weber Insurance Corporation explains what every driver should know in winter weather conditions. Learn what strategies will keep you safe on the road.

It’s important for every driver to know how to drive in winter weather conditions. It can be challenging to drive in these conditions, but with the knowledge of the information below, you’ll know how to stay safe on the road.

Be sure your car has plenty of antifreeze. You do not want to run out while driving in poor weather conditions.

Make sure your windshield wipers are in good condition and that your wiper fluid remains full. Dirty roads can cover a windshield with dirt quickly impacting your visibility.

Keep control of your vehicle by not using your cruise control settings.

Pack the essentials in your car in case you get stuck. A flashlight, roadside visibility reflectors, a snow brush and ice scraper, jumper cables and a bag of sand to help with traction are all key items that can help you deal with winter weather.

Always check the road conditions before you leave on your trip. Once you know the weather conditions, be sure to leave earlier so you don’t have to feel rushed. Giving yourself the extra time allows you to drive at an appropriate and safe speed.

Brake appropriately on slippery surfaces. If you start to skid, take your foot off the accelerator until you regain traction. Many people want to slam on the brakes when they notice their car starting to skid.

Give yourself more distance between the car ahead of you. When the weather conditions are poor, you will need more space between the car ahead of you to stop.

Know where to be extra cautious. Bridges, ramps, overpasses and shaded areas are likely to freeze first and can be extra slick.

To defrost your car, turn on your front and rear defrosters. Don’t use your windshield wipers. Once your car has warmed up slightly, use your plastic ice scrapers.

Knowledge is the first step to becoming a safe driver. Having the awareness and driving skills can help you stay safe in less than optimal weather conditions.

Category: safety