Alabama Government Could Establish Auto Insurance Database

Montgomery -- Free-Press-Release.com-- Mar 18, 2011 -- Residents of the Yellowhammer State may soon have even more incentive to be in compliance with Alabama auto insurance requirements, as a bill is now moving through the state legislature that would set up a state-run database and verification system to help make authorities better able to identify uninsured drivers.

Alabama already has relatively stern penalties for driving without a policy. First-time offenders can be fined up to $500, and the fine size jumps to $1,000 for all subsequent violations. But a part of state law requires drivers currently to only sign a statement when registering that indicates that they have proper coverage, making it not incredibly difficult for drivers to go uninsured.

Source: http://www.revenue.alabama.gov/motorvehicle/mvforms/MLIBrochure.pdf

But despite these penalties, it has been estimated that a large portion of the driving public in the state head out onto the road without coverage. A report from the Insurance Research Council (IRC) estimated that around 26 percent of the state’s drivers in 2007 did not have proper liability insurance. Alabama had the third-highest estimated uninsured rate in the IRC report.

Police currently enforce the law by checking proof of coverage when pulling drivers over for traffic violations, and the state also sends out random questionnaires requiring a response proving that the recipient has coverage. The verification system would help police verify coverage during checks and help the state identify drivers likely to be uninsured.

The legislation also alters the language of the state law to require drivers to show proof of coverage before registering a vehicle.

To learn more about this and other insurance issues, readers can go to http://www.onlineautoinsurance.com/alabama/ where visitors will find informative resource pages as a well as a quote-comparison generator that can be used to efficiently track down the best rates for coverage.

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Online Auto Insurance, LLC
Benjamin Zitney
http://www.onlineautoinsurance.com/