State Farm has handed its Good Neighbor Auto Safety Champion Award to four state legislators who pushed through laws targeting distracted driving, as the insurer steps up its public role in shaping road safety policy.
The 2025 honorees are Iowa Representative Ann Meyer, Missouri Senator Jason Bean, New Jersey Senator Patrick Diegnan and Pennsylvania Senator Rosemary Brown.
Each carries a concrete legislative win. Meyer steered Iowa's hands-free bill through the legislature in March 2025, clearing both chambers near-unanimously; the law took effect in July, with $100 fines starting in January.
Bean sponsored Missouri's Senate Bill 56, dragging the state off a short list of holdouts without a texting ban for drivers over 21. Brown was prime sponsor of Pennsylvania's "Paul Miller's Law," signed by Governor Josh Shapiro in June 2024 and now in force statewide.
Diegnan, his office said, has authored four New Jersey road safety bills, including a Target Zero Commission aimed at eliminating traffic fatalities.
Erin Engle, vice president-counsel at State Farm, said the program was built to spotlight lawmakers driving measurable change.
"State Farm created the Good Neighbor Auto Safety Champion Award to recognize lawmakers who are making a real difference in preventing distracted driving and saving lives," she said.
The numbers make the case. The US Department of Transportation pins 29% of motor vehicle crashes on distracted drivers, with more than 10,000 deaths, 1.3 million injuries and 5.6 million damaged vehicles a year.
State law remains a patchwork. The Governors Highway Safety Association counts 33 states plus DC banning handheld phone use for all drivers, with Colorado, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and South Carolina among the latest converts.
Research from GHSA and Cambridge Mobile Telematics has flagged falling distracted driving rates in Ohio, Alabama, Michigan and Missouri after their hands-free laws kicked in. Colorado's transportation department logged a 19% drop in inattentive-driving crashes within five months of its law.
A State Farm survey of 1,901 licensed drivers aged 18 to 75 found distracted driving topped roadway safety concerns, flagged by more than half. Aggressive driving came next at 45%, followed by alcohol-impaired driving (41%), speeding (38%), and running red lights or stop signs (28%).
For State Farm, the advocacy has a pricing logic. Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Michael Humphreys has said safer driving "can also help reduce the cost of your insurance as insurers factor your accident and driving history into their ratemaking."
Cambridge Mobile Telematics, meanwhile, has reported that pairing braking and phone-use data delivers a 9.8-fold lift in predicting total loss costs, putting distraction at the heart of modern auto underwriting.
The advocacy push runs alongside hefty consumer giveback. State Farm declared a record $5 billion dividend in February covering more than 49 million insured vehicles, alongside rate cuts averaging 10% across 40 states (previously reported).
The carrier tied the returns to its risk-mitigation investments, including the national distracted driving program now anchoring this awards cycle.
