Auto insurance rebate sought

With fewer cars on road, there’s been fewer crashes

Five senators and seven House lawmakers, led by Sen. Barry Finegold, wrote to Insurance Commissioner Gary Anderson late last week urging him to order auto insurance companies to deliver another round of premium relief to drivers in light of reduced travel and accidents as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Insurance companies covering 98% of the market offered drivers premium reductions in the spring as a result of people quarantining at home to avoid the virus and not driving as much.

But the lawmakers said that relief was not commensurate with the reduction in risk to insurers, who they said continue to benefit from people working from home and observing COVID-19 precautions.

The unadjusted rates, they said, also disproportionately impact lower-income communities that have been hit hard by COVID-19 and typically pay higher insurance premiums.

“Drivers are effectively being punished for heeding public health guidelines and staying off the roads,” said Finegold, an Andover Democrat, who represents Lawrence.

The letter was signed by Finegold and Sens. Diana

DiZoglio, Brendan Crighton, Sal DiDomenico, and Harriette Chandler, and by Reps. Christina Minicucci, Marcos Devers, Frank Moran, Steven Ultrino, Carol Doherty, Carole Fiola, and Antonio Cabral. All 12 lawmakers are members of the Gateway Cities Legislative Caucus.

The legislators said that there have been at least 140,000 crashes every year from 2016 to 2019, but at the start of this month there had been just over 84,000 crashes this year.

“The insurance industry contends that it has fixed administrative costs and that the number of severe accidents with larger claim payouts has not declined by as much as the overall number of accidents. While that may be true, the fact remains that insurance companies have hauled in record windfall profits, even after giving out refunds in the spring,” the lawmakers wrote.

“Residents in Massachusetts deserve and need additional relief, especially as the economy continues to recover at a slow pace,” they said.

NicoLaus czarnecki / HeraLD staFF FiLe OPEN ROADS: As the number of employees told to work at home increases due to the coronoavirus, traffic in the city and statewide has become lighter as seen here along Atlantic Avenue near South Station in March.