Automobile Insurance Rates Called Exorbitant

I share the feelings of Monroe Rubinger (Letters, June 10), who voiced anger at the apparent greed of the casualty insurance industry in this state.

I encountered a similar experience when, after more than 10 years with neither an accident nor a ticket, I was cited for a minor traffic violation. With my record clean and having confidence in my driving habits and ability, I simply “paid the ticket” and went on with business only to find a previously unmentioned surcharge of $150 per year for three years attached to my automobile policy.

That, in addition to a nearly 10% “regular premium increase” that has been customary for most of the last 10-plus years made by blood boil. (By the way, where is the increased availability and affordability promised to us by the insurance industry if we gave them Proposition 51?)

I am considered a “good driver” with a clean record (until this traffic citation) who has carried substantial insurance for years. I am told that my premium is “cheap” compared to that paid by most people ($2,200 per year is cheap?)

If people are in fact paying even more than me in premiums and are being treated the way I have been treated in connection with this surcharge for a single traffic citation, it’s time that Roxani Gillespie (insurance commissioner appointee), Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp and Gov. George Deukmejian be contacted with these concerns.

In fact, with apparent greed on the rampage among insurers and with their inability or unwillingness to independently and ethically serve the needs of the consuming public, perhaps more regulatory legislation is in order rather than less as is currently heard constantly from the insurance lobbyists.

C.B. ANDERSON

Northridge