Maybe you recall seeing drivers education footage showing what not to do behind the wheel. Often such lessons start as fun, with a clownish actor frantically shaving, eating, consulting maps and even reading a book while doing a lousy job of driving a car. But even with a sobering punchline about car accidents, the real joke is on all of us, now that texting while driving has entered the equation.

A recent survey for Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. reveals that 19 per cent of motorists admit to texting while driving. The real amount is probably higher, since not everyone will admit doing something so stupid. In fact, another survey in Massachusetts indicates that 28 per cent of people text while driving.

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“You’re in good hands” begins a familiar insurance company slogan. To be sure, insurance providers like to be viewed that way — as reliable, helpful protectors of your financial security and peace of mind.

But though some insurance companies certainly provide such service, others may betray a resolve to keep every dime they get from policy holders, even when such money rightfully should be paid out.

Take Great American Insurance Co., which is trying to wriggle out of a potential $25 million liability for a 2007 Houston office fire in which three people died.

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Again, a helicopter accident has taken a terrible toll — for the third time recently in the Houston area.

On Thursday, three persons died — and another two remain missing — after a helicopter ferrying workers to an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico crashed into the Gulf waters. The company which leased the helicopter reported that the helicopter was missing Thursday morning, and the Coast Guard later found three bodies and debris.

The accident occurred near land — only about two miles from the coast of Sabine Pass. The helicopter’s destination was an oil drilling platform about 18 miles off the coast. The Coast Guard sent search boats and a rescue helicopter to look for survivors.

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It’s been almost three months since Hurricane Ike devastated the Texas Gulf Coast, and hard-hit residents still stagger under the weight of enormous costs to restore their homes. The culprits? In too many cases, it’s balky insurance companies, which delay or deny payments in order to keep the money for themselves, drawing interest on it in the process while homeowners suffer. But even when an insurance company does issue a check, it seems some Texans are finding it tough to collect.

That’s because too many insurance companies are issuing recovery checks to the mortgage company holding the lien, not to the homeowner. Or sometimes the checks are written out to both the mortgage company and the homeowner. But often that check goes only to the mortgage company, which cashes it and keeps the money, or at least slows down its dispersal to desperate homeowners.

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Again, an ATV accident has taken a tragic toll. Former NBA standout Rodney Rogers has been paralyzed from the neck down after suffering injuries in an ATV accident in his home state of North Carolina.

Rogers, who played 12 seasons in the NBA, won the league’s Sixth Man Award in 2000 for his contributions to the Phoenix Suns. Before his professional career, he was a star player for Wake Forest University, earning All America honors. He retired from professional basketball in 2005.

Rogers, 37, reportedly was riding an ATV, or all terrain vehicle, on private property north of Raleigh, N.C., when he fell off or was thrown from the vehicle. In the process, his spinal cord was severely injured. Rogers is now in Atlanta to start a rehabilitation process.

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Almost three months since Hurricane Ike roared and roiled over the Houston area, many residents are still stuck with repair needs — and that’s too often because their insurance provider whom they paid in full for coverage has resisted, delayed or denied a fair settlement.

According to a report in today’s Houston Chronicle, more than 1,700 Texans so far have complained to the Texas Department of Insurance about balky insurance companies which refuse to pay, delay paying or offer a only small fraction of what they rightly owe their customers.

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