<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Which insurance companies have received a rate increase within the last 12 months? What is the criteria to receive an increase? And who approves them?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The state Insurance Department posts rate filings online, and users can search them by company, date and insurance type.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“The Louisiana Department of Insurance Office of Property and Casualty is charged with reviewing and issuing final dispositions relative to any request for rates, rules and forms for property and casualty insurance (such as homeowners and auto) sold in Louisiana,” Ileana Ledet, department spokeswoman, wrote in an email.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“The LDI staff reviews rate filings to ensure that proposed rates are not excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Ledet said the Insurance Department’s website also lists health insurance rates, but she noted that those rates aren’t subject to department approval.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Online:</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">www.ldi.la.gov/rates.</span>

<span class="R~sep~AHeadBrief">Use common sense, caution at crossings</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">What is the procedure on the railroad crossing arms if there’s no train approaching?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">As The Informer wrote in January:</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Louisiana R.S. 32:171 prohibits people from crossing tracks or going around lowered gates when an “approaching railroad train is plainly visible and is in hazardous proximity to such crossing.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">If the signals and gates remain active but no train approaches and no horn is heard, you may proceed once you determine it is safe to do so. Once you see a train approach or hear a horn, you must wait for the train to pass before proceeding.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">From the statute:</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyListing">A. Whenever any person driving a motor vehicle approaches a railroad grade crossing under any of the circumstances stated in this Section, the driver … shall stop within fifty feet but not less than fifteen feet from the nearest rail of such railroad, and shall not proceed until he can do so safely. The foregoing requirements shall apply when:</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyListing">(1) A clearly visible electric or mechanical signal device gives warning of the immediate approach of a railroad train.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyListing">(2) A crossing gate is lowered or when a human flagman gives or continues to give a signal of the approach or passage of a railroad train.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyListing">(3) A railroad train approaching within approximately nine hundred feet of the highway crossing emits a signal in accordance with R.S. 32:168, and such railroad train, by reason of its speed or nearness to such crossing, is an immediate hazard.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyListing">(4) An approaching railroad train is plainly visible and is in hazardous proximity to such crossing.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyListing">(5) A stop sign is erected at the approach to a railroad grade crossing.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Online:</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">www.legis.la.gov.</span>

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<span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">The I</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">nform</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">er answers questions from rea</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">ders each Sunday, Monday a</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">nd Wednesday. It is re</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">searched and written by</span> <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Andrew Perzo</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">, an</span> <span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">American Press</span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">staff wri</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">ter. To ask a question, call</span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">494-409</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">8 and leave voice mail, or ema</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">il informer@americanpress.com.</span>