Drivers in the state of West Virginia driving without a valid insurance policy are going to be in for rude shock in the near future. For a long time now, people are making do with temporary three month coverage just to ensure they get their vehicle registration renewed and then discard it.
Department of Motor Vehicles’ Deputy Commissioner, Steve Dale also said that there are people who buy even shorted insurance policies to save costs. As per the report from the Insurance Research Council, 13.8% is the national average for the uninsured drivers. The state of West Virginia alone has about 11% uninsured motorists on the road.
Dale went on to say that though West Virginia is not the state with the highest number of uninsured motorists on the road the number is significantly higher than declared by the report. He said that the accidents caused by these uninsured motorists pose a problem to the rest since the premiums are bound to spiral high.
However, consumers can now breathe a sigh of relief since the implementation of a new act 12 months ago is now making way for the DMV to implement that electronic verification for insurance policies. The relevant agencies in the state are taking steps of bring this to reality. As a first step towards this implementation, motorists were given a new registration renewal form to fill out this spring which also requires the NAIC number.
Dale said that they would run the insurance database weekly once to see if any person has dropped their insurance coverage. This move will also help law enforcement officers find out real time if the person they have apprehended has a valid insurance policy or not. In the initial stages, the Department of Motor Vehicles will be taking the help of third party vendors to implement this program. These vendors, in most of the states of the country, are companies that have established links with the insurance providers.
Dale has also said that the vendor selection process in on and the bids are being processed to choose the right one. He sounded hopeful about the success of this plan since the implementation of the electronic verification in various states has proven to be a success with the number of uninsured motorists on the roads reducing significantly. He also said that the plan the West Virginia was planning to put into action closely resembles the national model.
