UPDATE:US Lawmakers Question Auto Insurers In Toyota Probe
February 17 2010 - 4:30PM
Dow Jones News
U.S. lawmakers investigating Toyota Motor Corp. (TM, 7203.TO)
focused Wednesday on whether federal regulators properly heeded
warnings from auto-insurance companies about safety concerns.
The top Democrat and Republican on the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee pressed five of the nation's major car
insurers for information on their dealings with regulators at the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The lawmakers asked
for documents showing what information the companies provided to
regulators, and when, about incidents of unintended acceleration of
Toyota vehicles.
The move by the committee chairman, Rep. Edolphus Towns (D.,
N.Y.), and Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), reflects increasing
scrutiny of the NHTSA's response to gas-pedal and
unintended-acceleration problems that have led to the recall of
more than six million U.S. vehicles.
"During a hearing scheduled for February 24, 2010, the Committee
intends to focus in part on whether the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA) reacted properly to years of
complaints and other evidence regarding the acceleration problems,"
Towns and Issa said in a letter to the insurance executives.
The lawmakers said they were responding to an article in the
Washington Post earlier this month reporting that State Farm
Insurance Cos. in 2007 began warning U.S. safety regulators of
problems with Toyota accelerator systems.
"The Committee is interested in knowing whether your company
similarly reported (sudden, unintended acceleration) incidents to
NHTSA," the lawmakers wrote.
The letter was sent to executives at State Farm, Berkshire
Hathaway Inc.'s (BRKA, BRKB) Geico insurance unit; the Progressive
Corp.; Allstate Corp.'s (ALL) Allstate Insurance Co.; and Zurich
Financial Services AG's (ZFSVY) Farmers Insurance.
A State Farm spokesman said the company planned to comply with
the Oversight Committee's information requests. A Progressive
spokeswoman said, "We have complied with, and responded to, the
request from Congress, but we didn't have any information
responsive to their requests to provide."
Attempts to obtain comment from the other insurance companies
weren't immediately successful.
A Transportation Department spokeswoman declined to comment.
-By Josh Mitchell, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6637;
joshua.mitchell@dowjones.com
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