Benton Harbor’s Dial A Ride dropped by insurance

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Benton Harbor leaders are working to address a major challenge to the city’s Dial A Ride service.

Dial a Ride was dropped by its insurance holder last week.

City Commissioner Ron Singleton tells us a formal letter from the state transit pool has informed the city Dial a Ride will no longer be insured come the end of November. He says the service was dropped due to a high number of claims, crashes, and lawsuits.

Singleton says the former administration of the service caused major problems for it that the new Dial A Ride Board is seeking to fix. This is one of them.

The city has to find a new insurer for Dial A ride by December 1, or the service may not be able to operate. Singleton says this is a “definite challenge,” adding he’s not sure how difficult it will be to find a new insurer.

The Dial A Ride Board meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month, but Singleton says a special meeting may be called to address the insurance issue. He says the city is working hard to solve it, adding, “We’ll see what happens.”