RICHFIELD, Ohio - National Interstate Insurance Co. announced that its affiliate, Safety, Claims and Litigation Services, has been recognized for its accident event recorder program in the "Innovators Showcase" published in the January issue of Bests Review magazine.

The program provides National Interstates commercial transportation customers with access to accident event recorder technology.

Accident event recorders, which record video and audio when a driving incident occurs, can help to improve driver performance, reduce accidents and save lives while controlling losses and reducing insurance premiums.

Since launching its program six years ago, Safety, Claims and Litigation Services has helped install more than 14,000 of the recorders in customers vehicles.

"This project achieves its objective by gathering or assembling and making available to clients, in a convenient format, relevant data to which clients would not normally have access," noted Bests reviewer William Panning, executive vice president of Willis Re.

"The focus is on proactive preventive actions rather than on post-loss attempts to minimize loss costs."

Bests Innovators Showcase is a forum for recognizing forward thinking among insurance organizations. A panel of industry experts assess the relative merits of nearly 70 submissions.

"We are very pleased to be included in the exclusive group selected for Bests Reviews Innovators Showcase," said Dave Michelson, president of National Interstate. "The (accident event recorder) program has proven to be very successful in helping commercial transportation companies become safer operators while significantly enhancing their safety programs."

National Interstate Insurance is one of the nations largest insurers of motorcoach companies.