You frantically push on the brake and try to keep control of the car, but it crashes into the fence. The airbag doesn’t deploy for some reason, and you hit your head on the steering wheel.
As harrowing as this was, you remain conscious, and except for a bad headache, you feel all right.
A passing motorist had called 911, and police and a Fire Department ambulance arrive at the scene.
The EMTs want to check you out and likely take you to the hospital, but you remember that the FDNY has just started charging for services in such emergencies and that you would soon get a bill for about $500
You’re not sure if your health insurance (which you’re lucky enough to even have) will cover it, and you don’t feel all that bad, so you refuse any treatment.
When you finally get home that day, the headache starts getting worse…
This scenario could become all too real after July 1, if the FDNY goes ahead with plans to start charging victims for emergency response to car crashes. They even have it categorized like a take-out menu: $490 for a crash or car fire with an injury, $415 for a car fire without injuries, and $365 for a car wreck in which no one is hurt.
Several city and state lawmakers are determined to prevent the FDNY from imposing what has become to be known as a “crash tax.”
“If this is allowed, it’s really a slippery slope,” said Councilman Peter Vallone, Democrat from Queens, who has introduced legislation to block the FDNY from implementing the “accident response service fee.” “What would be next? Charging families for putting out a house fire?”
“We’re already paying for emergency response services in the form of
taxes. This practice amounts to double taxation,” said District 27 state Senator Carl Kruger, who is sponsoring a bill to ban the crash tax anywhere in New York State – as 10 states, including Pennsylvania and Florida, have already done. Twenty-eight other states have such legislation pending.
“What’s going to happen is that people will start refusing emergency
help when they really need it. They’ll say ‘no thanks’ when the FDNY
shows up and then drop dead of internal injuries a day later,” Kruger said.
An FDNY spokesman said the proposed move was the FDNY’s answer to the current city budget crunch; Mayor Bloomberg has directed each agency to find ways to cut spending, add revenue, or both. The spokesman added, though, that if the City Council or state legislature bans the practice, “we obviously won’t do it.”
Vallone and Kruger both said they’re confident that their colleagues will join, as Kruger put it, “the widespread outrage” over the proposal.
