State Farm to sponsor North Carolina driver-assistance program

The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) said State Farm has agreed to sponsor a service that offers free road assistance to drivers in need, the agency said on Monday.

The service, which has been known as the Incident Management Assistance Patrol program (IMAP), will be renamed as the NCDOT State Farm Safety Patrol. State Farm has agreed to sponsor the program for four years; the company underwrites similar programs in 13 other states.

NCDOT Secretary Tony Tata said a primary goal of the department is to make traveling in North Carolina safe and efficient.

“This innovative way of funding a vital program like the State Farm Safety Patrol furthers that effort without requiring additional tax dollars,” Tata said.

State Farm Marketing Director Ed Gold said the State Farm Safety Patrol program reflects the company’s commitment to auto safety and embodies its “good neighbor” philosophy.

“We are proud to sponsor this important program,” Gold said. “It helps people recover from the unexpected, which is at the heart of the State Farm mission.”

The NCDOT State Farm Safety Patrol covers fixed highway routes during peak travel hours to provide traffic control and safety at accident scenes. The program also assists motorists with towing, jump-starts, flat-tire repair and more on all or portions of heavily traveled highways in the Raleigh, Greensboro/Winston-Salem, Wilmington, Charlotte and Asheville areas. In 2014, IMAP assisted more than 100,000 motorists.