Here's why car insurance just jumped nearly 25% in Washington state

If you have a car insurance policy in Washington state, you may have noticed that it's gotten much more expensive this year.

In a recent article in The Seattle Times, reporter Victor Whitman shared the stories of Washington drivers who saw their insurance premiums jumping hundreds of dollars. This comes after the state's insurance commissioner approved a bigger than usual increase to average auto premiums in Washington, nearly 25%.

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So what's going on with auto insurance? Why are we on this rocket ship?

To find out, Soundside sat down with Kenton Brice, the president of the Northwest Insurance Council, a trade group funded by insurers.

While there are many reasons why insurance premiums have risen so dramatically, the simplest answer is that it's just much more expensive to fix vehicles today.

"It used to be that if you got in a fender bender in a parking lot, replacing the bumper of your vehicle might cost $1,500," Brice said. "That same bumper today has sensors and cameras and so forth in it and can cost thousands of dollars to replace."

So, while there's no question that the complexity and technological advances of modern cars have made driving safer, they're also much more expensive to fix.

Another big factor is the number of people on the roads. That plus the feeling of safety in a tech-heavy modern vehicle means that people are getting into increasingly worse wrecks.

"So cars are safer, they have a lot more technology that helps prevent injuries. But people are maybe taking advantage of those or don't know how those safety features work," Brice explained. "So they're driving faster, they're driving angrier, and the crashes that they're getting into are more severe."

You can listen to the entire conversation with NW Insurance Council president Kenton Brice by clicking the play button above.