'Organized Crime' Jacks Up Florida Auto Insurance Premiums

Florida auto insurance costs 56 percent more than the average in other states, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Why?

Citing a growing wave of staged and phantom accidents around the state, Steve Casey, executive director of the Florida Sheriffs Association, said, PIP fraud has become an organized crime."

The National Insurance Crime Bureau reported that Florida led the nation in questionable insurance claims from 2007 to 2009, with four of the top 10 U.S. cities with the highest rate of staged accidents in Florida: Tampa, Miami, Orlando and Hialeah.

Speaking at a noon rally at the Capitol on Wednesday, state Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater said, Florida's auto insurance system has been infiltrated by a circling pool of vicious sharks looking to make their millions off the backs of consumers.

Atwater was joined by Gov. Rick Scott, the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries of Florida and others at the "Put the Brakes on Accident Fraud" rally supporting a PIP insurance reform measure (House Bill 119), which cleared the House Civil Justice Subcommittee an hour earlier.

Full story upcoming in Sunshine State News.