Latest Auto Headlines
All the headlines from our Auto Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Crash Reconstructionists Sort Out Reality from What People Claim
Aug 9 2012 // Crashes happen every day. Most of the time, they are simple fender benders and those involved own up to their mistakes. Sometimes, there are witnesses who can fill in the blanks. Other times, however, drivers disagree...
Few Kids Use Recommended Safety Seats in Cars: Study
Aug 8 2012 // Despite the fact that car crashes are the leading cause of death for children older than three years in the U.S. and send more than 140,000 children to the emergency room each year, new research has found that low...
National Interstate Expands Tow Truck Insurance Into Additional States
Aug 7 2012 // National Interstate Insurance Co., a provider of transportation insurance since 1989, is expanding its tow truck insurance product into the Midwest, North Central and Pacific Northwestern states. The product is offered...
Texas Auto Complaints Hit Record Low
Aug 6 2012 // Texas motorists filed the fewest number of complaints against their automobile insurance company since the records began at the Texas Department of Insurance in 1994, according to a TDI report issued Monday. Texas...
Florida Regulators Question Auto Insurance Savings
Aug 6 2012 // Florida regulators are warning that a preliminary report estimating a new law will cut no-fault auto insurance premiums by 12 percent to 20 percent may be misleading and overly optimistic. The Office of Insurance...
J.D. Power: Auto Insurance Satisfaction Reaches All-Time High
Aug 6 2012 // Overall customer satisfaction with auto insurance companies has reached an all-time high, according to the Westlake Village, Calif.-based J.D. Power and Associates’ 2012 U.S. Auto Insurance Study. The satisfaction...
Auto Insurers’ Use of Credit Data
Aug 6 2012 // There is an effort now underway in Washington, D.C., to eliminate the use of consumer credit information by auto insurance companies. Three lawmakers are leading that effort in Congress. On July 13, Reps. Hansen Clarke...
Collector Cars Deserve Specialty Coverage
Aug 6 2012 // If you know any car collectors, then you know they give their cars special attention. They store their cars under protective coverings, keep them in garages and drive them on special occasions. So if a storm, intruder or...
DTRIC Insurance Launches Usage-Based Auto Insurance in Hawaii
Aug 3 2012 // DTRIC Insurance will begin offering Akamai Rater, Hawaii’s first program that aligns individual driver behavior with auto insurance rates. DTRIC’s Akamai Rater uses a small, in-vehicle telecommunications device...
South Dakota Motorist Hits Motorcycle, Vehicles While Texting
Jul 27 2012 // Police say a Sioux Falls, S.D., man was texting and driving too fast when he hit a motorcycle, three other vehicles and a light pole, and then ran from the accident scene. Brent O’Neal faces charges of felony hit and...
Markel Programs, All Risks Offer Excess Hired/Non-Owned Auto Liability
Jul 26 2012 // Markel Specialty Programs announced today that is has expanded its partnership with All Risks Ltd. to offer a new program for excess hired/non-owned auto liability with limits up to $1 million through All Risks’...
DPS: Tire Likely Cause of Deadly Texas Truck Crash
Jul 25 2012 // State authorities believe that a pickup truck’s front right tire came apart, likely causing the vehicle to veer off a rural highway and crash, killing 14 suspected illegal immigrants in South Texas. The truck packed...
Authorities: 13 Dead After Truck Crashes in Texas
Jul 24 2012 // A pickup truck overloaded with passengers veered off a highway and crashed into trees in rural South Texas on July 22, killing at least 13 people and leaving 10 injured, authorities said. Gerald Bryant, a spokesman for the...
CarFax Says Patent for Vehicle History Data Use in Insurance Approved
Jul 24 2012 // Carfax Inc. reported that federal officials have approved its patent applications for its auto insurance underwriting and rating system based on vehicle history attributes. CarFax said it expects the patents to be issued...
Sprint Offers Usage-Based, Driver Tracking Service for Insurance Industry
Jul 23 2012 // Communications firm Sprint has begun selling driver tracking services to auto insurers. Sprint said its integrated, end-to-end usage-based insurance (UBI) services is designed specifically for the auto insurance industry....
Portable Persistency Now Prop. 33; Consumer Watchdog Attacks
Jul 23 2012 // An initiative to establish portable persistency discounts for automobile insurance this month was assigned a number by the California Secretary of State, and shortly afterward the newly named Proposition 33 came under...
More Gen Y’ers Passing on Driving
Jul 23 2012 // To Shoshana Gurian-Sherman, driving seemed like a huge hassle. “Part of it was laziness,” the 23-year-old Minneapolis, Minn., resident recalled. “I didn’t really want to put in the effort to learn...
Driving History Seen as Predictor of Individual’s Lifespan
Jul 23 2012 // It appears that bad drivers live shorter lives than good drivers and not just because they get in accidents. The same motor vehicle driving records already widely used to help determine car insurance pricing can also be...
Buffalo Region Has Highest Auto Theft Rate in New York State
Jul 23 2012 // The New York Insurance Association said this month the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area has the highest vehicle theft rate in New York State. The region had a vehicle theft rate of 161.19 thefts per 100,000...
State Auto Financial: Impact of Q2 Storm Activity May Reach $36M
Jul 22 2012 // Columbus, Ohio-based State Auto Financial Corp. announced it estimates the company’s second quarter 2012 results will include between $33 million and $36 million in pre-tax net catastrophe losses. During the quarter...
