Rear-end accidents caused personal auto policyholders the most grief last year, as the most common insurance claim reported by Progressive Group of Insurance Companies. By comparison, commercial policyholders were plagued most often by backing accidents.
“In my experience, truckers are great drivers; but when you’re moving a rig that size into tight spaces, accidents can happen,” explained Mark Leadem, Progressive’s commercial auto claims field specialist. “Private passenger vehicles like cars and SUVs are much smaller and don’t face the same challenges.”
Those are just two of the insights Progressive garnered from its analysis of 2014 auto insurance claims. The analysis included claims from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and considered auto, motorcycle, boat and commercial lines. The company created a report for each line, identifying the top claims for each and frequency by month.
For commercial and personal lines, claims occurred most frequently in May and June, and include rear-end accidents, single vehicle claims and parked vehicles. December had the lowest claim volume for all vehicles.
When Progressive factored in geography, an interesting pattern emerged: the top five states in which residents were most likely to file an auto claim were all on the East Coast. Drivers in the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York and South Carolina were the most frequent claims filers in 2014, while drivers in Oklahoma were least likely to file a claim.
Other points of interest in the company’s “2014 Year in Claims” report include:
- More claims occurred on the weekdays than on either Saturday or Sunday
- There were more single-vehicle motorcycle claims than any involving cars or trucks
- The top five areas for theft and break-ins include the District of Columbia, California, Washington, Missouri and Hawaii
“The goal of this report is to empower people with information so they can avoid accidents,” said Mike Siegler, claims operation leader at Progressive. “We hope consumers can use this data to their advantage when on the road or on the water.”
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