AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE LOSSES, COLLISION COVERAGES: RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LOSSES AND VEHICLE DENSITY, 1972 AND 1973 MODELS

The purpose of the present study was threefold: 1. To investigate relationships between the registered vehicle density per square mile of the recorded garaging location of the automobile and collision coverage vehicle losses. 2. To assess what effect, if any, vehicle density might have on comparisons of losses between vehicle market classes and vehicle series. 3. To determine whether collision losses vary in any fundamental way with vehicle density. The results of the study showed: 1. That the listed garaging location of vehicles is strongly associated with their collision coverage insurance loss experience. Not surprisingly, vehicles listed as garaged in areas with a high vehicle density generally produce more frequent claims, but with lower average amounts, than vehicles normally garaged in areas with a low vehicle density. Both of these relationships were approximately linear with the logarithm of vehicle density, with the exception of the claim frequency for the highest vehicle density areas, where the frequency greatly exceeded that expected from the linear relationship observed for all lower density areas. 2. That the distribution of vehicle densities by market class showed only slight differences between the market classes. Furthermore, adjusting to eliminate these differences produced only negligible changes in the claim frequencies and average loss payments for each market class. Thus, it can be concluded that although the vehicle densities of garaging locations do have substantial influence on the frequency and size of automobile collision coverage insurance claims, these effects are consistent for each of the four major market classes and they are not likely to be distorting comparisons between individual vehicle series and market classes. 3. That there are fundamental relationships between collision losses and registered vehicle density per square mile, and that these relationships are substantially independent of vehicle market class. It does appear, however, that the relationships between average loss payment size and vehicle density have benn changed somewhat by the modest improvements in the bumper designs of the 1973 models.

• Corporate Authors:

  Highway Loss Data Institute

  1005 North Glebe Road
  Arlington, VA  United States  22201
• Publication Date: 1974-9

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 39 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automobile insurance; Density; Insurance claims; Loss and damage claims; Traffic density; Vehicle classification; Vehicle design
• Old TRIS Terms: Collision insurance; Coverages
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00098573
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Safety Council Safety Research Info Serv
• Report/Paper Numbers: HLDI-A-2
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 18 1975 12:00AM