Oklahoma City, June 26, 2010 - Republican Representative, Steve Martin and Oklahoma republican Senator Gary Stanislawski introduced House Bill 2331 which states that law enforcement agencies have the right to impound any vehicles that are driven by drivers that do not have current automobile insurance. Governor Brad Henry has signed the bill into a law which goes into affect beginning November 1, 2010. Rep. Martin states, "I am proud to see this legislation become law. It will get uninsured motorists off the road so that those motorists who do obey the law will have one less thing to worry about." Mr. Martin says that he wrote the bill after continuously receiving complaints and concerns from law abiding citizens about the number of uninsured motorists on the roads.
The recent activation of an instant-verification system now allows police officers to determine if any given vehicle is covered by active insurance. The process only takes a couple of seconds to complete. If the result returns that a given vehicle is not insured, that vehicle will be impounded. The impound fee, for the first day only, is $125. But that's not all; drivers will also be required to pay any storage fees and show proof of insurance before recovering their vehicles.
Representative Martin continued,"It has been estimated that one in four cars on Oklahoma roads has no liability insurance in spite of our mandatory insurance law. My hope is that this new law will reduce the number of victims of these uninsured motorists." AAA representative, Chuck Mai commented, "According to a study done by the Insurance Research Council, Oklahoma is among the worst rated states for uninsured drivers, ranking fourth overall. But so many folks are disregarding that they say, 'Well, I don't have the money. I'll get it next month,' or 'I just don't think I'll get caught.' So there's a lot of flaunting of that law going on."
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol Troopers are currently researching the different ways that this new law is going to affect their workloads. The computer system linking the officers to relevant information concerning insurance is already active. Oklahoma Highway Trooper, Michael Lane offered, "I think it's a very good thing the legislators have done, giving us an additional tool to insure the safety of the motoring public." Statistics show that minimum liability insurance in Oklahoma cost an average of about $31.00 each month, a small price to pay to remain legal and worry-free.
