This article provides insight into the problem of uninsured motorists in Alabama; the article also discusses the new insurance verification process adopted by the state in its attempt to reduce the number of uninsured motorists on Alabama's roadways.
Since the enactment of its mandatory auto liability law, Alabama has seen a growing number of uninsured motorists on the road. Much like the recently passed texting and driving law, Alabama law enforcement officials had difficulty enforcing compliance with the mandatory auto insurance law. While uninsured drivers initially adhered to the law, many have since learned how to “game the system.”
Under the current system, a driver could simply enroll into an auto liability insurance policy days before they renewed their vehicle’s tag. Once they enrolled, their insurance carrier would provide them with a card showing that the applicable policy was valid for 6 months to a year. However, once
a driver obtained his insurance card, he or she could (and often would) immediately cancel their policy or allow it to lapse within the first month.
While Alabama law enforcement officers currently require a driver to show proof of insurance via their insurance card at checkpoints and traffic stops, officers had no uniform way to verify that such insurance was actually current. Thus, troopers and other officers were essentially forced to rely on the dates stated on a driver’s insurance card.
The loophole in the system eventually led to the state’s current number of 900,000 uninsured motor vehicles, ranking Alabama as number six in the nation for the overall number of uninsured motorists.
State officials have finally modified the mandatory auto insurance system to ensure that drivers both obtain the required level of liability insurance and keep such insurance in place. The new system, which goes into effect on January 1, 2013, stores all the insurance information of all motor vehicles in a statewide database.
Officers can now simply run the insurance policy whenever a driver’s tag is checked during a traffic stop, eliminating the chance that a driver has a “invalid” insurance card. Local department of revenue officials can also instantly verify a driver’s insurance whenever a driver attempts to obtain/renew his or her tag.
The Alabama personal injury attorneys at Drake Law Firm have routinely represented car accident victims injured by drivers without any insurance. In such cases, victims were forced to rely on their own policy’s uninsured motorist benefits provision, which is not a mandatory form of insurance under current law, to offset any property and medical damages sustained in a wreck. Lawyers at the firm hope that the new enforcement system will allow car wreck victims to hold at-fault drivers responsible for their wrongful conduct and collect the compensation they are entitled to from the negligent driver’s liability policy.
