--- title: Dangerous Roads and Rising Car Costs Are Driving Auto Insurance Prices Higher description: America's car owners are facing rising auto insurance prices due to dangerous driving habits and higher costs for car repairs and injuries. authors: - name: Pete Grieve role: Lead News Reporter url: https://money.com/author/pete-grieve/ bio: Pete Grieve is a personal finance reporter. In his time at Money, Pete has covered everything from car buying to credit cards to the housing market. education: University of Chicago, BA Political Science at_money_since: 2022 articles: 597 covers: - Insurance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://twitter.com/pete_grieve - https://linkedin.com/in/pete-grieve-b5aa02138 - https://www.facebook.com/petegrieve4 editors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Insurance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2023-04-07T18:46:27.000Z' modified: '2024-02-29T16:36:31.000Z' section: Insurance tags: - cars - News word_count: 513 canonical: https://money.com/why-auto-insurance-prices-higher/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![A Car Hooked To An Oversized Umbrella Floating Away In The Sky](https://img.money.com/2023/04/News-How-Dangerous-Roads-Car-Costs-Higher-Auto-Insurance.jpg) [Auto insurance](https://money.com/best-auto-insurance/) premiums just keep rising as insurers face high costs due to more expensive car repairs and medical inflation — and more dangerous driving. In mid-2020, crash fatalities started to rise as Americans returned to the roads after months of pandemic lockdowns. It was the beginning of a seven-quarter streak of year-to-year increases in road fatalities, according to data from the [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)](https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813406). While fatalities have declined slightly in the last two quarters for which data is available, significantly more people are still dying in crashes than before the pandemic. In the first nine months of 2022, the NHTSA reports 31,785 fatalities, compared to 27,019 during the same period of 2019. A [new report](https://www.carriermanagement.com/features/2023/04/04/246958.htm) from Carrier Management, an information service for the insurance industry, explained that drivers got accustomed to traveling at faster speeds on empty roads in 2020, and simply never slowed down. That trend could be behind the increase in fatalities — and, consequently, [higher auto insurance bills](https://money.com/traffic-accidents-car-insurance-price-increase/). The situation is quite different from the spring of 2020, when America's roads were mostly empty and auto insurance companies [gave money back to customers](https://money.com/car-insurance-coronavirus-cheap-rates/) who were suddenly overpaying on their premiums. Insurers ended up [returning billions of dollars](https://money.com/more-car-insurance-refunds/) to drivers and were able to afford to do so because accidents were down — but a lot has changed since then. Now, because insurance companies are incurring greater costs from claims, they've been passing those costs along to their customers in the form of higher premiums. According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics [consumer price index report](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t02.htm), auto insurance prices are up 14.5% in the past year. Bad driving, however, is not the only reason car insurance is getting more expensive. ## Why auto insurance costs are rising Rising costs for medical services and increasingly expensive car repair bills are also big reasons why auto insurance prices are spiking: - As cars get increasingly sophisticated, they cost more to fix when drivers get in accidents. Carrier Management notes that this issue may be offset to an extent by better safety features in newer cars, but it's still a reality that insurers have to address. Shortages of car parts and higher labor costs are also part of the reason why [vehicle repair costs have soared](https://money.com/things-getting-more-expensive-inflation/) in the past year. - While inflation in the cost of medical care services has cooled down significantly and currently stands at 2.1% for the past year, it was as high 6.5% on an annual basis in September, according to CPI data. That means prices today are higher than they were a couple years ago, and auto insurers are having to pay more after accidents with injuries. - When data is finalized for 2022, auto insurance businesses' results "won’t be pretty," Carrier Management reports, adding that the vast majority of the largest companies aren't on track to break even in auto insurance. - State Farm, for example, recently reported [record underwriting losses](https://newsroom.statefarm.com/2022-by-the-numbers/) in its auto insurance business in 2022. For drivers, this all means that even higher premiums are likely coming down the pike. ## **More on Car Insurance** | | | --- | | **Money’s Top Picks** [8 Best Car Insurance Companies of 2024](https://money.com/best-auto-insurance/) [6 Best Commercial Auto Insurance Companies](https://money.com/best-commercial-auto-insurance-companies/) [7 Best Car Insurance Companies in Florida](https://money.com/best-car-insurance-florida/) **Car Insurance Reviews** [CURE Auto Insurance Review](https://money.com/cure-auto-insurance-review/) [AAA Auto Insurance Review](https://money.com/aaa-auto-insurance-review/) [Lemonade Car Insurance Review](https://money.com/lemonade-car-insurance-review/) **Learn More** [How to Lower Car Insurance Premiums](https://money.com/how-to-lower-car-insurance-premiums/) [Tips for First-Time Car Insurance Buyers](https://money.com/tips-for-first-time-car-insurance-buyers/) [How Does Car Insurance Work?](https://money.com/how-does-car-insurance-work/) | ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/why-auto-insurance-prices-higher/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Insurance", "item": "https://money.com/insurance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Car Insurance", "item": "https://money.com/car-insurance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Dangerous Roads and Rising Car Costs Are Driving Auto Insurance Prices Higher" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/why-auto-insurance-prices-higher/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/why-auto-insurance-prices-higher/", "name": "Dangerous Roads and Rising Car Costs Are Driving Auto Insurance Prices Higher", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2023-04-07T18:46:27.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/why-auto-insurance-prices-higher/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/why-auto-insurance-prices-higher/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-02-29T16:36:31.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Dangerous Roads and Rising Car Costs Are Driving Auto Insurance Prices Higher", "articleSection": "Insurance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2023/04/News-How-Dangerous-Roads-Car-Costs-Higher-Auto-Insurance.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "News-How-Dangerous-Roads-Car-Costs-Higher-Auto-Insurance" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Pete Grieve", "url": "https://money.com/author/pete-grieve/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/pete-grieve/#author", "description": "Pete Grieve is a personal finance reporter. 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