By Mannix Porterfield
Register-Herald Reporter
CHARLESTON — High-tech devices could be used when police stop motorists to see if they’re in compliance with mandatory liability coverage in an approved bill that one supporter thinks can lower premiums for law-abiding drivers.
Authority is extended to the Division of Motor Vehicles to electronically verify that motorists are carrying the proper insurance coverage.
As the bill worked its way in the Senate, there was testimony that some motorists take out a 90-day policy, then cancel it a month later, keeping it just long enough to get their license tags renewed each year.
House Judiciary Chairman Tim Miley, D-Harrison, said the idea is to let the DMV compare information the owner provides with that stored in a database, and also to monitor cancellations to make sure coverage is maintained.
Those in noncompliance can see their driving privileges suspended, Miley pointed out.
“It’s not spelled out,” Miley told Delegate Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, who wondered how the information from insurance carriers is provided.
“It’s part of a pilot program. In 18 months, we hope to have the full application. When a car is stopped, the police check for insurance. The information will be in the DMV’s vendor database so you can confirm whether the insurance is there.”
Miley wasn’t sure how many states have such a program in force, but pointed out the concept isn’t new.
The bill also says the DMV will get weekly updates of insurance of all motorists to see if they remain in coverage.
Miley said the idea behind the legislation is to provide motorists with a premium reduction, since carriers now impose a charge to cover the prospect of being involved in a crash with an uninsured motorist.
Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, chairman of the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure, touted the same line when the measure cleared the Senate.
Unger provided figures that show stark contrasts between the cost of policies by major carriers in Bluefield, a divided city that rests in both West Virginia and Virginia. Drivers living on the West Virginia side pay substantially more. For instance, he said, West Virginians in Bluefield pay $562 for six months of AIG coverage, while their Virginia neighbors in the same town pay $278.
Insurance carriers have publicly taken no position, Unger said, but their lobbyists privately oppose it, and one confided the firms want to charge the law-abiding motorist more to cover the uninsured.
— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com
