Washington

Only State Farm has unearthed data linking auto accident claimsto problems involving cars and trucks manufactured by Toyota, butindustry statistics are still likely to be aired during two Househearings on the issue this week.

Officials of Allstate, Farmers, GEICO, Progressive and StateFarm have responded to requests for accident data involving Toyotavehicles by two congressional committees, and will continue torespond, spokespeople from the carriers confirmed.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee andthe House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold back-to-backhearings on Feb. 24 and 25, respectively. In addition, the SenateCommerce Committee has scheduled a hearing for March 2.

Both House committees had asked the insurers to provide detaileddata on claims involving Toyota cars and trucks. The requests fordata were prompted by a Feb. 9 State Farm statement indicating thatthe auto insurer had alerted federal safety regulators in late 2007about a rise in reports of unexpected acceleration in Toyotavehicles.

In responding to the State Farm data, National Highway TrafficSafety Administration officials said the report was reviewed, andthe agency issued a recall later that month.

A State Farm representative, Phil Supple, confirmed that theinsurer is producing information pursuant to a subpoena. "We feelthe [Energy and Commerce] Committee will determine what to do withthe information when it convenes," he added.

However, both Allstate and Progressive said their recordsindicate no trends regarding unexpected acceleration, while Farmerssaid it is still analyzing its data.

"We have complied with, and responded to, the request fromCongress, but we didn't have any information responsive to theirrequests to provide," said Leah Knapp, a representative forProgressive.

An Allstate representative, Mike Siemienas, added that thecarrier had examined its records and found "no apparent trend" inclaims it had "processed that would point to a recurringproblem."

Mr. Siemienas also said Allstate had a process in place to dealwith recalls "because they occur all the time."

Jerry Davies, a representative for Farmers Insurance, said hisauto policy department was still reviewing the request forinformation as this story went to press, and will respond.