Thread: 160,000 uninsured drivers in Kansas

160,000 uninsured drivers in Kansas
BY HURST LAVIANA
The Wichita Eagle
http://www.kansas.com/news/local/story/152073.html
Dave Williams/The Wichita Eagle


Scott Childs looks over the damage his minivan sustained when his son was hit by an uninsured driver. Nathan Childs said police told him recovering the money might not be easy. "It's kind of a losing deal all the way around," he said. "It's just a lot of frustration."

ACCIDENT VICTIMS OFTEN END UP PAYING MEDICAL, REPAIR BILLS

KZSN disc jockey Don Hall was walking to the Crown Uptown Dinner Theatre last year to perform in the "Pickin' & Grinnin' "musical comedy. He didn't notice a 21-year-old woman turning south onto Hillside from Douglas.

"She was watching oncoming traffic and didn't see me," Hall said. "She sped up as she went around the corner. The bumper hit me right below the knee."

Paula Carter was heading home from work on her Honda Rebel 250 on April 30. As she pulled up to the four-way stop at Nims and River Boulevard, she kept a leery eye on a young driver signaling to turn left in front of her. But she didn't notice a Dodge Durango approaching the intersection on the right.

"She came right through the stop sign," Carter said. "She said on the police report that she stopped, but I had four to five witnesses who said she didn't.... My motorcycle was totaled. My medical bills were well over $50,000."

Hall and Carter said their unpleasant encounters with careless Wichita drivers were compounded by an even more unsettling fact: The drivers who hit them were uninsured.

The Kansas Department of Revenue says at least 160,000 people are driving on Kansas roads and highways without insurance. And every day, Kansas drivers who are properly insured are being sideswiped, rear-ended or run over by drivers who aren't.

Estimates of uninsured

When a new state law made it harder for illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses after July 1, there was some concern that would increase the number of unlicensed and uninsured drivers.

But even if the 15,000 immigrants who could be affected by the new law started driving without insurance today, it would not significantly swell the state's pool of uninsured drivers.

No one knows how many of Kansas' 2 million drivers don't have insurance. Kansas Department of Transportation accident statistics don't track uninsured drivers involved in accidents.

Nationwide, the Insurance Research Council, a nonprofit group that monitors industry issues, estimated there is a one in seven chance that an at-fault driver in an injury accident will be uninsured.

The group estimated in a report last year that the number of uninsured motorists had risen from 12.7 percent in 1999 to 14.6 percent in 2004. The estimates were based on claims filed with 11 companies that handle 58 percent of the nation's auto insurance policies.

In Kansas, the study said, about 13 percent of drivers were uninsured. In a state with about 2 million drivers, that would put the number of uninsured motorists at 260,000.

Bob Tomlinson, the state's assistant insurance commissioner, said he thinks the actual percentage is lower -- probably 8 to 9 percent. But even at 8 percent, that would leave 160,000 uninsured drivers on the highways.

There were about 36,000 traffic accidents involving two or more drivers last year in Kansas, according to KDOT. If Tomlinson's figures are correct, about 6,000 of those accidents -- one in six -- involved at least one driver who was uninsured.

A legislative task force is looking into the possibility of establishing an electronic insurance verification system that would allow police officers to conduct instant checks of whether a driver's insurance is valid.

Such a system would eliminate a common problem caused by drivers who sign up for a one-year policy, make just one monthly payment and then keep their insurance card for the rest of the year.

Concerns about accuracy and timeliness of the data have hindered the development of instant check systems, but Kansas is one of several states moving in that direction.

The victims

Nathan Childs, who helps run the Old Time Clock Shop on West 13th Street, was near Orchard Park in northwest Wichita last month when a 27-year-old woman hit the Dodge Caravan he was driving.

"She had a stop sign but ran right into the side of me," Childs said. "She was in a 1978 Lincoln Continental, so hers was the tougher car. Basically all that happened to her was she lost her bumper. The entire side of my van is dented."

Childs said he began to suspect at the scene that the woman was uninsured.

"She was acting kind of nervous," he said. "She was telling me some story about how she had just gotten her insurance transferred over to a new car.

"She gave me her name and said that she had Progressive insurance. Of course, when we called Progressive, they couldn't find any record of her."

Childs said the van, which is owned by his father, had $5,000 in damage, counting the tire that had to be replaced, the back door that was stuck shut and the dents in the side. He said police told him recovering the money might not be easy.

"They told me there's nothing you can really do about it -- that the only way to recover any damages is to take her to court," he said. "It's kind of a losing deal all the way around. It's just a lot of frustration."

Hall, the disc jockey, said his State Farm policy has uninsured motorist coverage that paid for most of his medical expenses, including two knee operations.

On the day of the accident, he said, the woman who hit him was carrying a card indicating she had insurance. But he later learned her policy had expired.

"She paid for it one month and never paid for it again," he said. "She was an uninsured motorist, but she did have proof of insurance."

Until there's an accident, Hall said, police don't check to see whether insurance cards are valid. Because the state has no instant verification system, he said, the woman was free to use a card that indicated her insurance was current.

"As long as she only gets speeding tickets, and tickets for running stop lights and stop signs, she can prove she has insurance," he said. "Or at least she can pull out a card."

Hall said he thinks he pays about $25 a month in uninsured motorists coverage.

"It's a little discouraging," he said. "Everybody's supposed to have it. If everybody played by the rules, that might be another $25 a month I'd have in my pocket."

Carter, who works for the Wichita Police Department, said the uninsured driver who crashed into her motorcycle also was carrying a current insurance card on a policy that had expired.

Carter said her insurance policy covered most of her medical bills. But she said she's paid $2,000 to $3,000 out of her own pocket -- plus the $250 deductible on the motorcycle.

"I shouldn't complain too much," she said. "I'm alive. I was told I'm very fortunate to be here.

"But it's just irritating that these people are out there doing this. You can buy insurance for 30 days, and then you drive the other 11 months without it."

Reach Hurst Laviana at 316-268-6499 or hlaviana@wichitaeagle.com.

Don't get hit by one or you will pay for everything. They will walk away free.

It's ironic that my former friend and his legal Peruvian wife who facilitated the illegal immigration of her entire family from Peru were once hit in their new car by an obviously uninsured, unlicensed driver who was probably illegal. He hit them then drove away to a majority latino part of town, ditched the car and ran off into an apartment complex. My former friend followed him, but wasn't enthusiastic about running into the apartment complex. When the cops finally showed up they said they couldn't do ANYTHING. They even told him going after the registered owner would probably be useless. Luckily, my former friend had uninsured motorist coverage.

A similar thing happened to my brother, except the cops did show up and the woman merely lied about having insurance and a driver's license, which the cops didn't even BOTHER to check up on. It turns out she didn't have either and was lying through her teeth. She was crying alligator tears through the whole episode. She was also latina.

My mother has been hit by 3 different cars that had illegal drivers in them. She has had to pay for everything and her insurance rates have gone up and the accidents were not her fault.

Originally Posted by Paige

My mother has been hit by 3 different cars that had illegal drivers in them. She has had to pay for everything and her insurance rates have gone up and the accidents were not her fault.

...this and the two episodes described by Sam-I-Am further illustrate the "fleecing of American citizens" by illegals. Cops won't do anything, government won't do anything meaningful...I have a fear that the still huge silent majority of Americans won't wake up to the havoc illegals are reigning on all aspects of our society, economy and culture until it will be too late. A serious and huge reduction in the numbers of illegal aliens in America needs undertaken. Deport Them Now.