Industry, rental associations push bill to make drivers' insurers primary for rental-car crashes

House Chair Representative Jim Arceuro presided over a hybrid hearing of the Joint Committee on Transportation where industry witnesses urged lawmakers to report S.2367 favorably, a bill that would make a driver’s own auto insurer the primary payer for damage caused while that driver operates a rental car.

The bill matters, supporters said, because current Massachusetts law can leave consumers and smaller rental companies in a more complex claims process than exists in most other states. "The insured negligent party should be primarily responsible for the damage that he or she causes," Thomas…