Motor vehicle crashes is one of the leading causes of death among people under the age of 55. In recent decades nearly every high-income country has made more rapid progress than the United States in reducing the frequency of road traffic deaths and the rate of accidents per mile of vehicle travel.
More than 38,000 people die every year in crashes on U.S. roadways. The U.S. traffic fatality rate is 12.4 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, an additional 4.4 million people suffer serious injuries.
The level of traffic is amongst the leading causes of road crashes in the country as 277 million vehicles are driven 3.24 billion miles annually. On average, drivers in the United States spend 51 minutes behind the wheel every day which has resulted in 14 million road crashes in 2017.
The National Safety Council has addressed the problem over the years and has listed best practices to stay safe on the roads but the outcome of these efforts has not managed to budge the number beyond a single percent change over the past couple of years.
U.S. Laws and Road Crashes
The global report on road traffic crashes published by World Health Organization helps explain one of the primary causes of high fatality rate, U.S. drives too much and the country’s laws are too permissive of deadly.
U.S. law does not require seatbelt use in the back seat, unlike most of the developed countries. Seat belts decrease injury and death risk by about 50% in the front seat and 25% in the back seat, according to WHO.
Drunk driving laws are also lenient compared to European nations and WHO recommendations. Many studies have shown that driving is impaired at lower blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels than 0.08. WHO recommends enforcing drunk driving laws at a low 0.05 BAC.
Besides, the United States, unlike other high-income countries, falls short to meet all international vehicle standards established by the United Nations. The country’s road safety law does not have generally accepted speed limit restriction of 31 miles per hour on urban roads.
Impact of Road Crashes on Auto Insurance Sector
Over the past decade, both the accident rate and the size of insurance claims have not seen any considerable improvement. These are the largest and most volatile components of auto insurance.
U.S. property and casualty insurers continue to face substantial underwriting losses on commercial automobile insurance and, following a statutory combined ratio of 108% in 2018, the segment is poised for a ninth consecutive year of underwriting losses in 2019, according to Fitch Insurance Ratings Group.
Despite repeated underwriting and pricing actions over multiple renewal cycles, commercial auto remains among the weakest major commercial lines Property and Casualty segments.
“Pricing increases alone have been insufficient,” said James Auden, managing director in Fitch’s Insurance Ratings Group. “The chronic underwriting losses in commercial auto in the last eight years reveal a need for change in several areas including risk selection, underwriting practices, and claims.”
After underperforming for several years, the auto liability market, particularly personal auto, began to turn a corner in 2018. The combined ratio for this line improved 5.1 percentage points year over year to 100.4%. Net premiums earned increased 8.3% while net losses and Loss Adjustment Expense (LAE) increased at a lesser rate of 1.9% and other underwriting expenses increased 7.2%. Overall, the net underwriting loss for this line was $587.6 million in 2018, a significant improvement compared to a $7.3 billion loss for 2017.
Commercial auto liability’s net premiums climbed 17.8% year over year in 2018 as companies had implemented rate increases in this line for 30 consecutive quarters. Despite rate increases, the unprofitable trend continued as net losses and LAE incurred totaled $21.3 billion, while net premiums earned stood at $25.5 billion, resulting in a net loss ratio of 83.5%. 2018 combined ratio was 111.7% and has surpassed the 100 percent threshold in each of the last eight years.
According to the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers Q4/2018 Commercial Property/Casualty Market Index, the reasons for Commercial Auto’s difficulties were numerous. Increased congestion on the roads, distracted driving, and road quality all led to an increased number of accidents, resulting in more frequent pay-outs. Additionally, those pay-outs were often more severe due to the higher value of modern vehicles and increased litigation costs.
U.S. based State farm Mutual Automobile Insurance reported an earned premium of $42.14 billion in 2019 compared to $43.43 billion a year ago. The company’s 2019 underwriting loss was $763 million compared to an underwriting gain of $1.28 billion in 2018.
The company reported an underwriting loss due to a decrease in premiums and an increase in claims and expenses in comparison to a year earlier. Co’s claim and expenses increased by 1.9% for the year.
U.S.’s third-largest auto insurer has found alternatives to better judge the claim ratio using telematics. In 2015, the company adopted a telematics solution to better analyze driver habit and adjust premiums accordingly. The adoption also helped better understand and predict the frequency ratio and severity ratio of claims.
In the year 2018, the company’s pioneer brand auto segment recorded an underwriting income increase of 98.6% over a course of three years after telematics solution adoption in 2015. The loss ratio of the company’s auto segment also improved from 74.5 in 2015 to 66.2 in 2018.
The insurer’s move is in line with the shift in the industry, like fintech’s role in finance, insurtech seems like the way of moving forward for the insurance industry. Boston based Liberty Mutual Holding also believes technology solutions could enhance their current performance,
The company for the year 2019 reported premiums earned of $38.96 billion compared to $37.91 billion a year ago but also recorded an increase in claims and expenses by about 6%. Liberty Mutual said it’s total combined ratio was 101.7% in 2019.
Liberty Mutual on February 28th announced it was working with Ford Motor Co to value, offer discounts to Liberty Mutual customers who drive a Ford connected vehicle on their safe driving.
“Liberty is committed to deep partnerships across mobility partners including many OEMs to support their customers’ insurance needs of today and in the future,” said Kara Shipulski, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships Group.
The move by the insurance industry aims to see better customer engagement, rewards, and discounts based on the usage and behavior of the driver which in turn should impact the road accident rates across the country.
