Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Uninsured motorists targeted

CARSON CITY -- An estimated 3,000 motorists were notified by mail last week that their auto registration was being canceled because they carried no insurance.

"We were besieged with calls," said Donna Wadey-Howell, chief of the registration division in the state Department of Motor Vehicle Department. Many of the callers were irate, she said.

Those nabbed for lack of coverage will have to pay a $250 penalty to have their registration renewed.

Many who received cancellation letters had been previously notified by certified letter that the records showed they didn't have insurance. Wadey-Howell said they never responded to explain why their coverage had lapsed.

A second notice is an automatic suspension of the car registration.

A new program was started late in 1994 with insurance companies required to submit monthly reports on those covered by policies and those who canceled. The department would then take the names and match them against the registration of the vehicles.

Those without insurance were then notified. Initially, a major problem occurred because vehicle identification numbers on a large number of insurance policies didn't match up with the state information. In other cases, the registration contained the wrong identification number.

Motorists were not penalized if there were mistakes in the insurance policies that didn't match up with the state. The computer program was changed.

Wadey-Howell said if there is less than a three-character difference between the insurance policy and the registration, the car owner will be deemed to have coverage if the name and vehicle are the same.

She said there were a "variety of problems" encountered when the 3,000 notices were mailed out April 5. She said the division is caught up now and there will be routine smaller mailings every month.

During the next four to six weeks, the state intends to do a sampling to see how many motorists still don't carry insurance.

A legislative audit released in 1994 estimated there were between 50,000 and 150,000 vehicles without insurance. It said the department removed less than 12,000 of these cars from the road.

The department maintains that only about 6.2 percent of the motorists don't have insurance. The new survey will determine if the uninsured motorist problem has been reduced in Nevada with the stepped-up enforcement.

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