BOSTON (AP) – The state’s auto insurers on Friday recommended a 3.7 percent rate cut for Massachusetts drivers next year, citing declining injury claims resulting in part from anti-fraud campaigns.

The Automobile Insurers Bureau of Massachusetts also recommended that the discount for insuring more than one car with the same carrier be increased from 5 percent to 10 percent.

The proposed overall rate reduction marks the second straight year the bureau has recommended a cut rather than an increase. The organization last year recommended a much smaller 0.1 percent reduction. Insurance Commissioner Julianne Bowler ultimately approved an 8.7 percent cut, for an average annual premium of $1,020 this year.

The insurers’ 2007 proposal is the first step in Massachusetts’ regulated rate-setting system. Attorney General Tom Reilly and the statistical arm of the state Division of Insurance are scheduled to issue recommendations in coming weeks, followed by public hearings. Bowler is expected to make a final decision on the 2007 rate in December.

After the insurers’ bureau issued its 2007 recommendation, Reilly issued a statement suggesting he would seek a deeper cut than 3.7 percent.

“If the insurance industry can come up with cuts of 3.7 percent you can be sure that there are more savings to be had,” said Reilly, who recommended an 18 percent cut last year.

Daniel I. Johnston, president of the insurers’ bureau, said his group’s recommended cut was made possible by a years-long trend of declining injury claims from automobile accidents. Injury claims statewide fell from $932 million in 2004 to $832 million last year, with the number of injury claims dropping from about 178,000 to 155,000.

Meanwhile, the number of total claims – including non-injury claims for property damage, injury claims and theft claims – was about 1 million last year, up about 1 percent from 2004 but more than 8 percent less than in 2003.

Johnston said injury claims are dropping in part because of campaigns by insurers and law enforcement that aim to reduce fraudulent claims. The state now has eight community anti-fraud campaigns in nine cities: Boston, Brockton, Chelsea, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Randolph and Springfield.

While the cities account for 11 percent of the state’s population, they account for 56 percent of the drop in injury claims, the bureau said.

Nineteen different companies insure about 4 million cars in Massachusetts.

AP-ES-08-11-06 1739EDT