Hitting Harder, But Not So Often - Auto Injury Claims Less Common, But More Severe
Long term trends in auto insurance claims show that America is becoming a safer place to drive, and hint that efforts to make cars, roads and highways safer are having positive benefits where it counts. The Insurance Research Council’s recently published 2008 Auto Injury Claims Report notes significant drops in the numbers of claims for Bodily Inury (down 19 percent), Personal Injury (down 14 percent) and Property Damage (down 11%). The report analyzes claims made from 2000 to 2006 across the whole auto insurance industry.
The proportionally greater drop in personal injury and bodily injury claims as a percentage of all accidents is a further indication of the benefits of safety engineering in todays cars and roads.
On the flip side, the IRC study found that the actual cost of claims placed is growing at an average rate of 3% every year. The rising cost of repairs and medical treatment when accidents do happen has erased most of the underlying cost benefits gained by the drop in accident rates. Elizabeth Sprinkel, Senior VP of the IRC notes that if accident rates should start to return to their historic pace then increasing loss severity “will create upward cost pressure on consumers.”
So, if you want to see your auto insurance rates stay stable, lets be careful out there.
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