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United Press International
AUSTIN -Discrimination by in
surance companies undermines
efforts of handicapped persons to be
self-sufficient, financially indepen
dent citizens, representatives of the
blind, deaf, crippled and mentally
impaired told the State Insurance
Board Monday.
“I feel that I’m being penalized,
not because of ill health but because
I’m sitting in this wheelchair,” said
Edna Maree Moore, an Austin artist.
Moore said insurance agents told her
there was no use for her to even
apply because of the disabilities she
suffered from polio.
Margaret Nosek, director of a fed
erally funded program to help hand
icapped individuals lead indepen
dent lives, said she has been unable
to obtain insurance herself or find a
company that will provide accept
able coverage for self-employed dis
abled persons.
Nosek said she is confined to a
wheelchair by spinal muscular atro
phy but her condition has nothing to
do with back problems, the reason
one insurance company cited in de
nying her application.
Even if the disabled are not de
nied coverage, they are forced to pay
high rates out of proportion to the
risks they pose for accidents or ill
ness, witnesses told the Insurance
Board hearing.
Jane Allison, a cerebral palsy vic
tim, said she had to join a bank travel
club 15 years ago and pay high rates
to obtain insurance.
Steve Currier, spokesman for Mo
bility Impaired Grappling Hurdles
Together, said one quadraplegic
member of his group was told by an
insurance agent, “We consider
handicapped people uninsurable. ’
Currier said insurance companies
make an unfair assumption that
handicapped people are unhealthy
and poor risks.
“The effect of current insurance
policies on persons who have been
judged handicapped is threatening, ”
said Sam McFarland of San Antonio,
a rehabilitation engineer with South
west Research Institute.
“Handicapped persons are
assumed to be higher risks by em
ployers, by landlords and insurance
companies.”
Roger Koppa, of Texas A&M Uni
versity’s Texas Transportation Insti
tute, said his office tests equipment
intended to adapt motor vehicles for
use by the handicapped and finds
when the installation is done proper
ly, “there seems to be no evidence at
all that these folks can’t drive just as
well as you or I, and sometimes
better.”
Ralph White, program specialist
with the Texas Rehabilitation Com
mission, said he and other deaf per
sons encounter particular difficulty
in obtaining auto insurance.
The Legislature directed the In
surance Commission to study prob
lems the handicapped and elderly
face in obtaining insurance and make
recommendations to lawmakers in
1981.
Hearings on insurance problems
of the elderly will begin Nov. 27,
Chairman Bill Daves announced.
Representatives of the Texas Re
habilitation Commission, Southwest
Research Institute, Texas Transpor
tion Institution, Texas Commission
for the Deaf, Ex Students’ Associa
tion School for the Blind, National
Federation of the Blind, Epilepsy
Association of Texas, Austin Associa
tion for Retarded Citizens and a
number of private individuals testi
fied at Monday’s hearing.
United Press International
ROSENBERG — Five men dres
sed in ponchos and karate pants,
each identifying himself as a mem
ber of the Christ family, took turns
driving their van without a license
during the weekend and were jailed
in lieu of bond.
Officer Andy Walters stopped the
van with Arizona license plates about
10:45 p.in. Saturday in search of a
missing person. He found the driv-
who identified himself as St.
James Christ, had no license.
When Walters took the man into
ustody, the other four in the van —
Lt. D.G. Stanton said $17, sleep
ing bags and fruit were found in the
van, which was found to be regis
tered to a “Christ” family in Arizona.
He said the men told police God had
ordered them to go to Florida.
The men described themselves as
“non-violent people,” “preachers”
and “vegetarians, ” and refused to eat
jail food, police said. They at first
refused to give police their real
names and gave one address, a post
office box in Blythe, Calif.
The men finally were identified as
Robin James Backhaus, 24, of Tuc
son, Ariz.; and James Kostelnik, 35;
James Welsh, 19; Roger Butler, 31;
and Duncan Lucier, 24, no addres
ses available.
Backhaus was released Sunday af
ter his father paid his $203.50 traffic
bond, O’Neal said.
Duncan, St. Joseph No. 1, St.
[oseph No. 2 and St. James No. 2 —
nsisted they would accompany St.
[ames No. 1 to the Fort Bend Coun-
ly Jail.
None of the men had a driver’s
license, so each took a turn at the
wheel to get arrested. Each drove
the van from the parking lot onto a
side street and back into the parking
lot where he was duly charged.
I
You couldn’t do nothing with
them,” Lt. Walter O’Neal said.
Each one insisted that the first one
wasn’t gonna go to jail by himself, so
they all took turns driving. They
were gonna do something to jro to
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