NU Online News Service, Feb.12, 11:50 a.m. EST

WASHINGTON–A House committee has asked five insurance companies to provide it with information by next week regarding accident trends involving cars and trucks manufactured by Toyota.

The request by the House Energy and Commerce Committee was prompted by a statement Tuesday by State Farm indicating that it had alerted federal safety regulators in late 2007 about a rise in reports of unexpected acceleration in Toyota vehicles.

However, officials of two of the four other companies that received the request for information said they have so far found no signs of a similar trend in claims they have received.

These companies are Allstate and Progressive .

The request for the data by next Wednesday comes as three congressional committees gear up to hold hearings soon on the Toyota recall issue.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee sent the letter seeking the data from Allstate, Farmers Group, GEICO, Progressive and State Farm.

It is one of the three committees planning hearings on the issue.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee plans a hearing Feb. 24 and the Energy and Commerce Committee plans a hearing the next day.

The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a hearing March 2.

In responding to the State Farm data, NHTSA officials said the report was reviewed and the agency issued a recall later that month.

But a spokesman for Allstate cautioned that it had examined its records and found "there was no apparent trend" in claims it had "processed that would point to a recurring problem."

Mike Siemienas, the Allstate spokesman, also said that it had a process in place to deal with recalls "because they occur all the time."

Mr. Siemienas said Allstate is in the process of responding to the request for the data from the E&C panel.

Lee Knapp, a spokesman for Progressive, added that the company is currently reviewing claims that may be affected by the Toyota recalls.

"Right now it's too soon to say how many customers may be affected, but at this point there's no indication that it will be a significant number," she said.

She added, "We're also reviewing the request from Rep. Waxman, and if we have anything that is responsive to that request, we will provide it."

Special Reports /

Insurers Asked To Provide Toyota Accident Data To Congress

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