CRACK DOWN ON AUTO INSURANCE SCOFFLAWS

For years, Missouri has required vehicles licensed in the state to be insured. In addition, owners who insured their autos also paid a small premium for uninsured-motorist coverage.

A presumption that uninsured-motorist coverage is protection against vehicle owners from other states would be incorrect. Anyone involved in an accident in this state is far more likely to find a fellow Missourian in an uninsured vehicle. Sadly, statistics for 1997 show that the number of uninsured motorists rose more than 9 percent over 1996.

Effective this year, vehicle owners must show proof of insurance when they get their autos licensed. This means they have to have a Missouri automobile insurance identification card for each vehicle being licensed. Sounds like the problem of growing numbers of insured motorists is over, right?

Wrong.

Missourians who have habitually avoided obtaining auto insurance will simply find new ways to slip through the cracks. For example, they can get an insurance policy the day the vehicle is licensed and then cancel the policy the next day. Or they might simply put off getting a license altogether, choosing to drive the vehicle without current tags rather than get the proper insurance, in which case the new law mandating proof of insurance might have the negative effect of encouraging a different kind of scofflaw.

Interestingly, the statistics from the Missouri Department of Insurance, showing the increase in uninsured vehicles in 1997, were compiled by comparing insurance-policy records on file with the department and registration information kept at the Missouri Department of Revenue.

This information is kept on computers. The Department of Insurance computer folks get information from the Department of Revenue computer folks. Then, using a computer, the two lists are compared. It doesn't take long for a high-powered computer to spit out information about who is insured and who isn't.

Given all this computer technology, it seems like a pretty simple process to go after motorists whose vehicles aren't insured. This might take some new legislation, however. For example, how about a law empowering the Department of Insurance to forward the names and addresses of any uninsured vehicle owners to the prosecuting attorneys in the various counties? And how about a law making it a misdemeanor or felony to own an uninsured vehicle? Then the prosecuting attorney could file charges against vehicle owners who, for whatever reasons, don't get insurance.

Why such a tough approach? Because uninsured motorists cause millions of dollars of damage in accidents each year in Missouri, and that cost is borne by law-abiding auto owners who pay inflated insurance premiums to cover the costs of uninsured motorists. That's why.