re: Robot trucks on I45 this year, more coming

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That coupled with distractions as well as being actual terrible drivers and no wonder we have the highest insurance premiums. (Although I don’t think we are terribly different than anywhere else)

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You’re almost there. Our premiums aren’t higher because people drive worse or get in more accidents compared to other states. Our premiums are higher because damage awards for similar injuries/treatment are far higher in Louisiana than most other states. It’s a game where the plaintiff attorneys are sending their clients for enough treatment to exhaust whatever policy limits are applicable, but not for too much treatment that they waste too much money paying the doctors and reducing the plaintiff’s payout.

The doctors are also in on it. As long as they give an opinion that all of their treatment was necessitated by the accident, regardless of how minor the collision or for how long their patient complained of pain, they’ll get their bill paid out of the settlement.

Since it’s possible for a plaintiff to get a judgment for more than the defendant’s policy limits, if an insurance company doesn’t settle and protect their insured, the insurance company will then get sued by their insured to cover the excess judgment.

Those billboards don’t just materialize out of nowhere. They come from six-figure monthly advertising budgets paid for with your premiums.