Latest Auto Headlines
All the headlines from our Auto Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Not telling consumers about risks may be an agent’s biggest risk
Aug 21 2006 // Every year, just before daylight savings time rolls around, I get a package in the mail with a 9-volt battery. The package is from my mortgage company, sending me a reminder to change the battery in my smoke detector. That...
Safeco Launches Instant Auto Endorsement Processing
Aug 18 2006 // Seattle-based Safeco has introduced online technology that allows independent agents to make instant changes to clients’ commercial auto policies. The real-time capability cuts a one-week process into a two-minute...
State Farm Files for Rate Reduction
Aug 18 2006 // State Farm Insurance, California’s largest auto insurer, has applied for an 8 percent average reduction for its policyholders while simultaneously implementing new auto rate regulations, according to the Department...
Calif. Commissioner Calls Court Ruling on Auto Regs a Victory
Aug 17 2006 // On Wednesday afternoon, the 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento, Calif., refused to overturn a Superior Court ruling that required insurers to comply with the new auto rating regulations. “Once again the...
Mass. Largest Auto Insurer Dropped from High Risk Board
Aug 16 2006 // Massachusett’s largest, locally-based auto insurer, which has frequently locked horns with the Romney administration, has been dropped from the board that oversees how high-risk drivers are apportioned among...
Researchers Find Many Commercial Drivers Impaired by Lack of Sleep
Aug 15 2006 // Truck drivers who routinely get too little sleep or suffer from sleep apnea show signs of fatigue and impaired performance that can make them a hazard on the road, according to a major new study by researchers at the...
Minn. Police Defend Jailing Insurance Scofflaw Killed by Inmate
Aug 14 2006 // The police chief in Elk River said an insurance violation was a good enough reason for his officers to lock up a man who was later beaten to death in the Sherburne County jail. A story in the Associated Press last week...
Mass. Regulator Rules Auto Rates Must Be Set By State Again
Aug 14 2006 // As expected, Massachusetts officials have confirmed that the insurance commissioner, not competition, will set auto insurance rates for 2007. In a four-page decision handed down Aug. 10, Insurance Commissioner Julianne...
Agents Association Accuses Garamendi of Using Office to Win Votes
Aug 14 2006 // The Western Insurance Agents Association, Rancho Cordova, Calif., has issued a statement responding to California Insurance Commissioner Garamendi’s auto rate regulations. It reads: Americans would be hard pressed to...
Fla. Charges Agency with ‘Sliding’ Ancillary Costs onto Auto Policies
Aug 14 2006 // Tom Gallagher, Florida’s chief financial officer, said he has filed administrative charges against 12 agents and customer representatives of Direct General Insurance Agency for “sliding” ancillary...
Doctors Say Remote Videos Could Speed Care for Crash Victims
Aug 11 2006 // Traffic surveillance cameras set up along two of Syracuse, New York’s busiest highways may help doctors save lives. The cameras will provide emergency room doctors at Upstate Hospital with real-time views of crash...
Mass. Auto Insurers Seek 3.7% Rate Cut for 2007
Aug 11 2006 // For the second year in a row, Massachusetts auto insurers have filed for rate reduction. For 2007, the industry’s rating bureau is recommending rates be cut an average 3.7 percent. If approved, that would mean about...
Calif. Approves USAA’s 8 Percent Auto Rate Reduction, Insurers Not Surprised
Aug 10 2006 // California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi announced that he intends to approve an average 8 percent decrease in premium rates for policyholders of United Services Automobile Association (USAA), a move that the...
Judge Denies California Insurers’ Lawsuit to Stop Auto Rate Regs
Aug 10 2006 // A Sacramento Superior Court judge has decided to reject the insurance industry’s request for an injunction against auto insurance rate regulation reforms in California, but the legal challenges will not end...
Arrowhead General Offers Market for Auto/Extra Heavy Trucks and Tractors
Aug 9 2006 // Arrowhead General Insurance Agency Inc.’s Commercial Division has a new market for commercial auto/extra heavy trucks and tractors available in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. Extra heavy trucks...
Safer Cars, Not Better Drivers, Behind Fewer Roadway Deaths
Aug 9 2006 // The designs of passenger vehicles have been improving for years, becoming more protective of their occupants in crashes. Without these improvements, the motor vehicle death rate per registered vehicle would have stopped...
Kemper Auto and Home Aims to Relieve Texas Select Policyholders
Aug 8 2006 // Kemper Auto and Home announced that it is participating in the effort to help policyholders of Texas Select Lloyds Insurance Company make the adjustment away from the recently liquidated insurer to a new insurer. The...
Insurance Poll Reveals Misconceptions about Renter’s Insurance
Aug 8 2006 // Every year Washington residents end up with millions of dollars in uninsured losses that could be prevented. According to a poll commissioned by PEMCO Insurance based in Seattle, there is widespread misunderstanding of...
Three Arrested for Staging Florida PIP Fraud Accidents
Aug 8 2006 // Three individuals, including a father and daughter have been arrested and face felony charges stemming from staged accidents and $40,000 in fraudulent auto insurance billings according to Tom Gallagher, Florida’s...
Kick start my heart … but don’t steal my ‘bike’
Aug 7 2006 // A refrain from an old tune by Motley Crew probably sums up the feelings of motocycle enthusiasts who have been caught in the web of rising thefts in recent years. The National Insurance Crime Bureau just released its...
