On a cold January evening last year, Sandy Van Litsenborgh was driving home from work on an icy side street in Whitechapel, east London. Unable to pass an oncoming motorist because the street was too narrow, she reversed to let the car past and hit a Vauxhall Vectra parked behind her.

I REFER to news reports on Bank Negara’s directive to insurance companies to charge normal market premium rates for motor insurance (old private vehicles), which is to take effect immediately.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office has been actively investigating organized crash scams since 2009.County, federal and state law enforcement officials on Thursday announced the results of a five-month investigation involving staged car crashes and insurance fraud in Hillsborough County at a news conference held Thursday at the sheriff’s office in Ybor City.

The B.C. government is putting the brakes on plans by ICBC to raise rates for drivers who rack up speeding tickets, run red lights or cause collisions.

The provincially-owned insurance company said Wednesday it plans to overhaul its rate structure to reward safe drivers and punish those with traffic violations.

THE report “Lower fees for insuring old cars” (NST, May 5) about Bank Negara Malaysia’s ruling that cars more than 10 years old can now be insured at normal rates is welcome news, but some concerns remain, the most important being whether the risks covered are comprehensive or limited to third party damage.

A car accident between two people led to a bomb threat and an arrest, Bay County Sheriff’s officials wrote in a news release. The accident happened at about 7:30 p.m. on Sunday night at 6110 Cypress Point Drive.

Jesse Levey recently saved $200 a year on car insurance by having a girlfriend. The 31-year-old Californian, who works in marketing, recently got the pleasant surprise when he added his girlfriend to his auto insurance policy.

Many analysts are predicting that insurance premiums will remain flat in 2011 — maybe even go down. That’s a relief to consumers who are seeing everything else go up, from gasoline to a loaf of bread.

As a public service to residents, the Financial Planning Association of San Diego is answering financial questions for readers of The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Sometimes, being among the nation’s leaders isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Especially, as was the case this week, when you find out once again you are paying higher auto insurance premiums than everyone else.

Well, that’s not entirely true. We can still snub our noses at those poor folks in Michigan who overtook us this year for the “top” spot.