Insurance News - Saturday, July 6, 2013

Here are the leading auto insurance headlines from ONTARIO AUTO INSURANCE TOPICS ON TWITTER for Saturday, July 6, 2013:

• South Dakota has some of the youngest drivers in North America so they now have a law bars drivers from ages 14 to 16 from using cell phones. 
• How is this for a big tort award?  Jury awards $43 million to a Vermont woman paralyzed in car crash.
• New Brunswick has merged financial regulators.  The new Financial and Consumer Services Commission will be responsible for securities, insurance, pensions, consumer affairs, co-operatives, credit unions, caisses populaires and trust companies.
• California offers a no-frills auto policy to low-income drivers. Those policies just got cheaper as rates fall in that state.  The no-frill policies start at $226.
• FSCO's final 2013 Statement of Priorities is now available online.  A list of auto insurance related priorities can be found here.
• Also last week FSCO launched an auto insurance fraud hotline (1-855-5TIP-NOW ) and a new fraud web portal.
• The Consumerization Of Risk Management: Using technology to allow drivers to reduce their own risk.
• Talk about big sinkholes.  A sinkhole in Ohio was so large it swallowed entire car and the driver needs ladder to climb out. 
• A new way to heal broken bones: 3D-printed casts. I wonder what impact they will have on claims in the long run.
• A Chinese man has to be King of the Scammers. He was involved in 334 staged accidents to scam insurers, that's one every three days for three years.