Bill boosts insurance premiums for inexperienced, problem drivers

House Bill 221 is backed by the state Department of Insurance, and it makes several changes to North Carolina's auto insurance laws. Two in particular caught lawmakers' attention Monday, and the bill was pulled to give the agency more time to talk the ideas over with legislators.

One would let insurance companies add an inexperienced driver surcharge to premiums for a driver's first eight years instead of the first three.

The other would extend the surcharges from three years to five that drivers face after traffic offenses like reckless driving, hit and run, passing a school bus and more serious offenses. This wouldn't affect most speeding offenses.

Rep. Dana Bumgardner, R-Gaston, said the goal "is to let good drivers do less subsidizing of bad drivers."

But the bill was set aside in the House Rules committee after House Democratic Leader Darren Jackson and Rep. Gale Adcock, D-Wake, questioned these two provisions.

Bumgardner had said everyone involved in the bill was for it. When Adcock pressed him on that, he said he'd spoken only to insurance industry representatives, not consumer advocates.

A Department of Insurance lobbyist said the intent is to put "a little more onus on those folks that are bad drivers."

The bill may come back up later this week.