California Drivers are Due Additional Insurance Refunds in Pandemic, Regulator Says SHARE THIS ARTICLE: Auto insurers shortchanged California drivers on refunds ordered last year as crashes dropped during the coronavirus pandemic, the state’s insurance regulator said Thursday. Traffic plummeted after California imposed the nation’s first stay-home order a year ago to slow the spread of the coronavirus. But insurers said dangerous driving trends have worsened even as the number of miles driven declined. New Round of Insurance Refunds Ordered Collisions dropped by 55% and injuries and deaths from traffic accidents fell 53% in the week after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order, University of California, Davis, researchers found. Schools and most nonessential businesses closed for months and millions of employees lost their jobs or started working from home, leaving once-clogged highways virtually traffic-free even in famously crowded Los Angeles and San Francisco.