Latest Personal Auto Headlines
All the headlines from our Personal Auto Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Self-Driving Vehicle Regulation Bill Gets Late Push in Senate
Dec 4 2018 // Key U.S. senators are making a last-ditch effort to win approval of a bill to speed the use of self-driving cars without human controls, but face an uphill battle on Capitol Hill. Staff for Republican Senator John Thune...
Why Parents Should Buy Bigger, Safer Vehicles for Teen Drivers
Dec 3 2018 // The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) engages in a wide variety of work to reduce deaths, injuries and property damage from crashes, but most consumers know the IIHS for its safety ratings of new vehicles. The...
Storm System Cancels Flights, Creates Treacherous Driving Conditions in Midwest
Nov 27 2018 // A wintry storm brought blizzard-like conditions to parts of the Midwest early Monday, grounding hundreds of flights and causing slick roads for commuters as they returned to work after the Thanksgiving weekend. The Chicago...
Ohio State Researchers: Road Design Impacts Distracted Driving Crash Frequency
Nov 21 2018 // A new study from Ohio State University’s Risk Institute reveals road design modifications can reduce the frequency and severity of distracted driving crashes. According to the Property Casualty Insurers Association...
Nebraska Seeking New Ways to Warn Drivers About Deer
Nov 15 2018 // You’ve seen them — the yellow signs along the state’s rural roadways that warn of a deer crossing ahead. Trouble is, researchers say, we mostly ignore such warnings. It presents a quandary for highway safety...
New Jersey Court Ruling Could Erase 20K Drunken Driving Convictions
Nov 15 2018 // A ruling issued Tuesday by the New Jersey Supreme Court could cause more than 20,000 drunken driving convictions to be vacated. The justices unanimously found that criminal charges pending against a state police sergeant...
Officials: Driver Was Huffing Before Crash That Killed Wisconsin Girl Scouts, Mom
Nov 6 2018 // A young driver was inhaling chemical vapors, or huffing, just prior to striking and killing three Girl Scouts and a mother and critically injuring a fourth girl who had been picking up trash along a rural Wisconsin...
Ohio’s New Distracted Driving Law Now in Effect
Nov 5 2018 // A new Ohio law aimed at cutting down on distracted driving in the state went into effect on Oct. 29. The Ohio Department of Public Safety says House Bill 95 will be a significant distracted driving deterrent and an...
Kemper’s Strong Third Quarter Includes Infinity Results
Nov 5 2018 // Kemper Corp. reported net income of $92.2 million for the third quarter of 2018, compared to $47.7 million for the third quarter of 2017. As adjusted for the acquisition in the quarter of nonstandard auto insurer Infinity,...
Uber Asks to Resume Self-Driving Tests in Penn., Improves Vehicle Software
Nov 5 2018 // Uber Technologies Inc has asked Pennsylvania for permission to resume self-driving car testing on public roads and has improved the autonomous vehicle software, the company said on Friday, more than seven months after it...
Waymo Cleared to be First in California for Testing Without Backup Driver
Oct 30 2018 // Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo unit on Tuesday became the first company to receive a permit from the state of California to test driverless vehicles without a backup driver in the front seat, the state’s Department of...
What’s Happening and What Lies Ahead for P/C Insurance Pricing: Moody’s
Oct 30 2018 // The current pricing environment for property/casualty insurers is “modestly positive,” with commercial and personal auto rates rising by mid-to-high single digits, homeowners and commercial property rates...
10 Students, Driver Injured in Central Texas School Bus Crash
Oct 26 2018 // Investigators say 10 students and their school bus driver were injured when the vehicle was broadsided by an 18-wheeler on a Central Texas highway. The Texas Department of Public Safety says nobody was seriously hurt in...
Ohio Village Has 10 Years to Refund Drivers in Traffic Camera Case
Oct 25 2018 // A judge will allow an Ohio village 10 years to refund an estimated $3.2 million collected from drivers for speeding citations from automated camera. New Miami’s automatic camera enforcement was ruled unconstitutional...
NJM Hires Callahan to Expand Teen Driver Safety Program in Pennsylvania
Oct 24 2018 // NJM Insurance Group (NJM), a property and casualty insurer in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., has hired Jeneen M. Callahan to lead the expansion of its Teen Driver Safety Program into Pennsylvania. In her role,...
Teens Urged to ‘Flip the Script’ on Parents This Teen Driver Safety Week
Oct 24 2018 // Four-in-10 parents of teen drivers don’t talk to their kids about safe driving on a regular basis. That factoid, says survey sponsor Allstate, could be an incentive for teens to “flip the script” and...
Federal Safety Agency Shuts Down Self-Driving School Bus Test
Oct 23 2018 // The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Monday said it had ordered Transdev North America to immediately stop transporting school children in Florida in a driverless shuttle, as the testing could be putting...
How States Are Battling Distracted Driving
Oct 22 2018 // Like many diligent public servants, Georgia state Representative Ed Setzler enjoys crowing about a nice, tidy highway project. In a Sept. 8 Facebook video, the Republican appeared to be doing just that from behind the...
London’s Biggest Private Taxi Firm Aims to Roll Out Self-Driving Cars by 2021
Oct 22 2018 // A fleet of autonomous taxis could roll onto the streets of the U.K. capital within three years, after one of London’s biggest private-hire taxi companies struck a deal with a maker of autonomous vehicle...
NTSB: Texas Driver’s Drug Use Led to Deadly Church Bus Crash
Oct 19 2018 // A motorist’s use of marijuana and a sedative led to a collision with a church bus that killed 13 people on the bus, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a report released on Oct. 16. According to the...
