Critical data may be found throughout the police report

The presence of data elements, such as posted speed limit or airbag deployed, can help adjusters understand potential implications for BI severity.

Many adjusters manually review police reports to identify critical details, but depending on the placement of the data within the report — or the way the value is represented — insights that can help inform BI severity can be easy to miss.

Posted speed limits can help adjusters determine the potential severity of the accident.

From our analysis, we know accidents that take place within higher speed zones have a greater impact on crash severity.

Crashes that occur in a 55-mph zone have a 28% higher impact on BI severity than those that occur in 25-39-mph zones.⁴

4. LexisNexis Risk Solutions internal data

Police reports can tell adjusters if the airbags were deployed during a crash, which helps indicate the seriousness of an accident.

When airbags are deployed, BI severity can go up by 33% compared to a claim with no airbag deployed.⁴

Injuries can add complexity to claims that can slow the process and drive up costs.

Carriers can use this value to determine who has suffered injuries, the seriousness of those injuries and how that might impact the overall claim.

Even 1 injury on a police report can increase the cost to settle the claim 86%.⁴

4. LexisNexis Risk Solutions internal data

The number of vehicles towed, if any, can have a serious impact on BI severity for a claim.

Additionally, knowing which vehicles were towed can help adjusters determine whether the claim is a total loss.

When 2 vehicles are towed, it can increase BI severity 52%.⁴

Ejection is an extremely important data point to identify.

In a claim with at least 1 ejection, the BI severity can drastically increase. If this element is missed, a claim could easily get out of hand.

If an ejection is present within a police report, BI severity can increase 159%.⁴

4. LexisNexis Risk Solutions internal data

If fatality information is missed, there can be serious implications for the claim.

Crashes that have fatalities could have a 223% increase on BI severity.⁴