Latest Auto Headlines
All the headlines from our Auto Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Retired State Auto Chairman, President and CEO, Robert H. Moone, Passes
Dec 29 2015 // State Auto Financial Corp. announced its former Chairman, President and CEO Robert H. (Bob) Moone died on Friday, Dec. 25, 2015. He was 72 years old. “I was blessed to have gotten to know Bob in recent months,”...
Oregon Woman Stuck by Car Files Suit over Designer Clothes
Dec 29 2015 // A Portland, Ore. woman struck by a drunken driver in a crosswalk has filed a lawsuit seeking $4,600 for the designer clothes she was wearing at the time, on top of the cost of her medical bills. The Oregonian reported that...
Christmastime Storm Ravages Southeast States
Dec 28 2015 // Lightning illuminates a house after a tornado touched down in Jefferson County, Ala., damaging several houses, Friday, Dec. 25, 2015, in Birmingham, Ala. A Christmastime wave of severe weather continued Friday. (AP...
Latest Death Linked to Takata Air Bag Exposes Recall System Flaw
Dec 27 2015 // From 2010 to 2012, Honda Motor Co. said it made multiple attempts to notify the owner of a 2001 Accord that the car’s air bag was faulty and needed replacing. Last July, with the car sold to another person and...
Texas Man Who Drove Car into Gulf Sentenced For Insurance Fraud
Dec 23 2015 // An exotic car salvage yard owner in Lufkin, Texas has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison after pleading guilty to insurance fraud. The Houston Chronicle reported that in November 2009, Andy House drove...
Fatal Auto Pedestrian Accidents on the Rise in Texas
Dec 22 2015 // The number of fatal auto pedestrian accidents in Texas has risen 36 percent since the Texas Department of Transportation began keeping the records in 2010, recently released National Highway Traffic Safety Administration...
Driverless Cars Give Lawyers Bottomless List of Defendants
Dec 22 2015 // Imagine a robot car with no one behind the wheel hitting another driverless car. Who’s at fault? The answer: No one knows. But plaintiff’s lawyers are salivating at the prospects for big paydays from such...
Oregon Wife Files $7.9M Suit After Husband Crushed by Dump Truck
Dec 21 2015 // A Medford, Ore. woman has filed a lawsuit against two construction companies after he husband was crushed to death by a dump truck in a construction area on Interstate 5 near Cottage Grove. The Mail Tribune reported that...
South Carolina Insurers to Weather at Least $181M in Claims from October Storm
Dec 21 2015 // The mega-storm that devastated South Carolina in early October is estimated to have cost more than $1.4 billion with insurers paying around $181 million of those losses in claims, so far. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley...
The Top Insurance News Stories of the Year 2015
Dec 21 2015 // The year 2015 was a year during which the property/casualty insurance industry got a glimpse at its future in the form of disruptive forces, new competitors, new leaders and emerging risks. Also, some of the news revived...
Man Who Drove Bugatti into Gulf Going to Prison for Insurance Fraud
Dec 18 2015 // An exotic car salvage yard owner in Lufkin, Texas, has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison after pleading guilty to insurance fraud. The Houston Chronicle reports that in November 2009, Andy House drove...
Opinion: California DMV Rules Would Slow Driverless Car Development
Dec 18 2015 // The home state of Google Inc., the pioneering company in driverless cars, has just taken steps to make life more difficult – not just for Google, but for all of us who would like to see driverless cars hit the road as...
Driverless Car Accidents Pile Up As They Obey Laws, Humans Don’t So Much
Dec 18 2015 // The self-driving car, that cutting-edge creation that’s supposed to lead to a world without accidents, is achieving the exact opposite right now: The vehicles have racked up a crash rate double that of those with...
Alper Services Adds Van Winkle, Washington in Chicago
Dec 17 2015 // Alper Services LLC, based in Chicago, has hired Debra Van Winkle as a senior account manager in the Employee Benefits Division and Craig Washington as a senior claims administrator in the Claims Management Services...
Ford Announces Autonomous Vehicle Testing on California Roads
Dec 17 2015 // Ford announced that it is officially enrolled in the California Autonomous Vehicle Tester Program to test autonomous vehicles on public roads, and fully autonomous Ford Fusion Hybrid sedans are set to take to California...
How to Make U.S. Traffic Safety Programs More Effective: RAND Study
Dec 17 2015 // Following a national approach to adopting traffic safety laws is more cost effective than following a state-by-state approach, according to a new RAND Corp. study. Boosting traffic safety funding by 10 percent and...
A.M. Best Downgrades Specialty Auto Writer Nevada General
Dec 16 2015 // A.M. Best has downgraded the issuer credit rating to “bbb” from “bbb+” and affirmed the financial strength rating of B++ (Good) of Nevada General Insurance Co. The outlook for the ICR has been...
After Seeing Truck in Jihadist Photo Texas Plumber Sues Dealer
Dec 15 2015 // A Texas plumber is suing a truck dealer after a vehicle emblazoned with his company’s name and phone number — and carrying gun-toting fighters — appeared in a photo circulated by purported Islamic...
Ohio’s Ride-Hailing Bill Awaits Governor’s Signature
Dec 15 2015 // Ohio’s Transportation Network Company (TNC) bill, Sub. HB 237, is headed to Gov. John Kasich for his signature, according to the Ohio Insurance Institute. The insurance industry trade group sent a letter to the...
U.S. Safety Agency Advocating Stronger Truck Rear-Impact Guards
Dec 14 2015 // The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is proposing that trucking companies be required to install stronger guards on their trailers to reduce deaths caused when cars rear-end tractor trailers. The agency...
