Latest Personal Auto Headlines
All the headlines from our Personal Auto Topic Page, ordered by recency.
ISO Introduces Endorsements to Address Ridesharing Policy Gaps
Apr 2 2015 // ISO has introduced two new personal auto coverage options for ridesharing drivers when they’re logged in but don’t have any passengers – an issue that has been the subject of controversy among insurance...
New Mexico Drivers Can Take Safety Courses Sooner Under New Law
Apr 2 2015 // Gov. Susana Martinez has signed a bill to allow New Mexico drivers to take safety courses at a younger age. Currently, people can take the refresher courses when they turn 55. Under the bill signed into law Tuesday, they...
Month-Long Austin Rideshare Challenge Shows Drivers Lack Insurance Savvy
Apr 2 2015 // Josh Waldrum knows from first-hand experience that most of the folks who drive for rideshare services like Uber and Lyft are not well informed about the insurance issues that insurance professionals see as problematic such...
Iowa Urged to Toughen Rules on Teen Driving
Apr 1 2015 // A safety research organization is urging Iowa to toughen its rules for teenager driver’s licenses. The Des Moines Register reports that a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says Iowa could cut its...
N.H. Court: Worker Who Fell Asleep While Driving Due Benefits for Crash Injuries
Mar 27 2015 // The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled last week that a worker who fell asleep while driving a company truck and hit a utility pole in the course of his employment is entitled to workers’ compensation benefits for the...
Texting While Driving Officially Banned in Mississippi
Mar 26 2015 // Mississippi has become the 45th state to ban texting while driving after Governor Phil Bryant signed the bill into law this past week. House Bill 389 prohibits drivers from writing, sending or reading text messages, emails...
Progressive to Risk Raising Rates on Risky Snapshot Drivers
Mar 25 2015 // Progressive Corp., the fourth-largest U.S. auto insurer, said it will begin increasing rates for some risky customers who participate in a program that allows the company to electronically monitor driving habits. The...
Supreme Court Gives Pregnant UPS Driver’s Claim Another Chance
Mar 25 2015 // The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with a former driver for UPS Inc. by throwing out a lower court ruling blocking her lawsuit accusing the package delivery company of discrimination for refusing to lighten her work...
7 Arrested in Georgia for Insurance Fraud in Staged Car Crash
Mar 24 2015 // Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens says seven central Georgia residents accused of staging a car crash have been charged with insurance fraud. Hudgens said in a statement that the crash on Sept. 5, 2013 involved a 1998...
Bill to Create Two-Tiered Driver’s License Moving in New Mexico
Mar 23 2015 // The New Mexico Senate approved a two-tiered bill on Friday that would continue to grant driving privileges to people in the country illegally. The compromise reached on the issue calls for two distinct driver’s...
Parents Settle with Liquor Store in Oklahoma Teen Drunk Driving Case
Mar 23 2015 // Parents of a 17-year-old Oklahoman who was killed in a traffic accident in 2012 have been awarded $1.5 million in a civil case settlement. The Oklahoman reports that Donna and Duane Kerns have settled with Woodshed Liquor...
Mississippi on Road to Banning Texting-While-Driving
Mar 23 2015 // Mississippi is one step closer to becoming the 45th state to ban texting while driving, after the state Senate overwhelming passed such a bill on March 9. The governor, for his part, is expected to sign the measure into...
Dozens of Drivers Ticketed after Michigan Freeway Pileup
Mar 20 2015 // Dozens of drivers are being ticketed following January’s massive pileup on snowy Interstate 94 in southwestern Michigan that killed a 57-year-old trucker and closed a stretch of the roadway for two days, police...
Drunk Driver Ignition Locks Offer ‘Significant’ Benefits, Savings: Study
Mar 20 2015 // Putting technology that prevents drunk drivers from starting a vehicle into every car and truck in the U.S. could save 59,000 lives and $343 million over 15 years, according to a University of Michigan study. U-M’s...
Might Human Drivers Be Outlawed?
Mar 19 2015 // Tesla Motors co-founder and CEO Elon Musk thinks that human-driven cars could eventually be outlawed as computers show they can do a more efficient and safer job of driving. “In the distant future, [legislators] may...
Parents Awarded $1.5M in Oklahoma Teen Drunk Driving Case
Mar 16 2015 // Parents of a 17-year-old Oklahoman who was killed in a traffic accident in 2012 have been awarded $1.5 million in a civil case settlement. The Oklahoman reports that Donna and Duane Kerns have settled with Woodshed Liquor...
90% of Parents Waive Teen Driving Restriction in Iowa
Mar 16 2015 // An effort to improve some teen drivers’ road safety by limiting their number of passengers is having little impact in Iowa, because the majority of parents are signing waivers to opt their kids out of the...
California Suit: Lyft Cheated New Drivers Out of $1K Bonuses
Mar 16 2015 // The Lyft ridesharing company took new drivers for a ride by cheating them out of promised $1,000 bonuses, according to a federal lawsuit . Hundreds of drivers lost a total of at least $5 million worth of bonuses that were...
Driving-Related Fatalities in Rhode Island Decreased 20% in 2014
Mar 13 2015 // Rhode Island’s attorney general says the number of driving-related fatalities in Rhode Island decreased 20 percent in 2014, to the lowest number in a decade. Attorney General Peter Kilmartin says there were 65...
Transportation Network Company Insurance Bill Passes Oklahoma Senate
Mar 12 2015 // A bill addressing the insurance requirements of transportation network companies (TNCs), or rideshare organizations, and their drivers has passed the Oklahoma Senate by an overwhelming majority vote of 40-3. SB 436, the...
