Uninsured drivers increasing in Idaho, causing crashes and higher rates

In Idaho, liability insurance is required to drive a car. but there is no active way to prove if you have insurance or not — unless you are in an accident or get pulled over. The North West Insurance Council reports there was a 22 percent increase in uninsured drivers on the road in the Gem State from 2012 to 2015. And unfortunately, you won’t know who they are until they run into you.

When you hit the road, sometimes the last thing on your mind is thinking if other drivers are insured.

The increasing number of uninsured drivers is making insurance claims more difficult for those who are insured.

“We have a lot of uninsured drivers in here in the state of Idaho,” said Lt. Chris Weadick, with the Idaho State Police.

“When property is damaged in the absence of insurance, then the people that own the property bear the disproportionate loss of paying for the loss that they didn’t cause,” said State Farm Insurance agent Bryant Hafen.

This can cause financial loss to policy holders when they’re hit by an uninsured driver. Therefore, the big question is how can the requirement to have insurance be actively enforced?

“It is state law that if you’re going to be driving a vehicle in the state of Idaho that you carry minimal liability insurance,” said Alberto Gonzalez, the head of Idaho State Department of Motor Vehicles.

“Idaho as a state does not have any program to actively enforce mandatory insurance laws. When you go to register a car, nobody at the DMV is going to ask for proof of insurance. When you get your annual registration renewals, nobody is going to ask for proof of insurance,” Hafen said.

What many counties do ask for is your signature; with you promising that your vehicle is and/or will be continuously insured as prescribed by law.

“This person signing the registration is attesting to the fact that they will be carrying liability insurance as required by law. But we don’t ask them to provide proof of insurance at the time of registration,” Gonzalez said.

Ultimately, that leaves the proof of insurance to trust.

“So anytime you have a situation where a law is on the books, but there’s no active enforcement, you have very little in regard to compliance,” Hafen said.

Which leaves one of the only times a driver’s insurance may be asked for, is if they’re involved in an accident or pulled over.

“A lot of our crash scenes, we are seeing uninsured motorists. and unfortunately, it is the uninsured motorists that are raising our rates out here for the drivers that have insurance,” Weadick said.

“Other than that, people can go for years and years driving without insurance and nobody would know or frankly care until they were involved in an accident,” Hafen said.

Hafen’s call to action: State officials need to take a closer look at how to monitor insurance compliance more actively and not only when there is an incident. The DMV says enforcement is typically left with law enforcement and the courts.

“We provide access to that online verification system to law enforcement as well. But it is not a requirement at the time of registration to look it up, mostly because at the time they’re registering the vehicle they might not have done their insurance update yet. They have a couple of days to do that,” Gonzalez said.

The best way to protect yourself if you get hit by an uninsured driver is to have uninsured motorist coverage. This covers you when you get hit by someone with no insurance.