Detroit —The mayoral candidates came together for yet another debate last week, this time focusing on improving mass transit. The Detroit Department of Transportation has been suffering a years-long shortage in drivers and support staff, when more Detroiters are using the busing system to get around the city.
Mass transit is one of the few sacred cows within Michigan Democrat politics. Busing in southeast Michigan suburbs is handled regionally by SMART, working in partnership with Detroit’s bus system.
The debate was less than impressive—higher wages, better technology, blah blah blah—the same tired bullshit pushed in the 2000s and 1990s.
Truth be told, the only time my eyebrows raised was when Saunteel Jenkins claimed to have spent a day in a wheelchair attempting to navigate the Detroit bus system to experience a day in the life of a handicap person. If you believe that story, I have an island I’d like to sell you.
Some guy who isn’t even running for mayor kicked off the event singing an off-key rendition of “The Wheels on Bus”—so cringeworthy I almost logged off, but nonetheless I persisted.
One glaring item never mentioned once during the debate was the very real issue of liability that plagues not just DDOT but SMART as well. For decades, professional claimants have been suing the bus system for quick and easy settlements.
So ubiquitous is this racket that, as a professional investigator, I spent years uncovering fraud on behalf of the third-party administrators (TPAs) that the city was forced to use after it filed for bankruptcy.
Most Metro Detroiters don’t know about this problem, but why else do you see billboard after billboard along I-96 and I-94 festooned with ads for personal injury attorneys?
The claims span a wide array of injuries, from the very rare real claims, like somebody actually getting hit by a bus, to more absurd situations, like a bus driving over a curb or pothole and a passenger falling over.
Aspiring mayoral candidates, city councilpersons, and anyone associated with Detroit politics avoid mentioning the notion of Metro Detroit being a city and region of professional claimants, because it stains the city.
Michigan Enjoyer spoke with an account manager for a TPA currently handling SMART liability claims who was formerly employed by the firm handling DDOT claims during Detroit’s bankruptcy.
“We never understood the size and scope of the claims until Detroit was legally forced to use us,” said the account manager. The claims against Detroit were overwhelming. One adjuster was handling two to three hundred claims alone.
SMART, according to my source, is as bad or worse in regard to liability: “We’re getting killed with claims right now.”
It’s a feeding frenzy for personal injury attorneys, but apparently that’s the cost of doing business for mass transit operators here. The yearly costs of this are such a drain on taxpayers and end-users that my source, who’s worked in the industry for over 30 years, couldn’t even fathom the numbers.
If there’s a partisan political angle to this cottage industry of cash settlement, it’s not immediately clear, but I’ll say this much: Show me a Republican personal injury attorney, and I’ll show you a unicorn.
As an aside, fighting off these claims is troublesome from a surveillance perspective.
Professional claimants who moonlight as bus riders are typically low-income and change addresses like changing socks. Locating and successfully surveilling a person who uses public transportation is quite difficult. If they ride into a hub or bus station with high traffic, it’s game over.
Lastly, and probably most important to this issue, is the Government Liability for Negligence Act of 1964, which put Michigan cities on the hook for a ceaseless flow of liability claims. Tort reforms over the years, including mini-tort efforts, have entirely sidestepped this law, leaving a wide lane for these claims to overburden Detroit.
There is very little mayors, or aspiring mayors, can do about professional claimants gaming the system, other than highlight the issue enough that lawmakers in Lansing take notice. But if they can’t see it now, they never will.
Jay Murray is a writer for Michigan Enjoyer and has been a Metro Detroit-based professional investigator for 22 years. Follow him on X @Stainless31.
