4 ms·

How can 1 out of 8 driver be uninsured in that country? Aren't the cars supposed to be registered? The state isn't checking that registered cars are also insure

How can 1 out of 8 driver be uninsured in that country? Aren't the cars supposed to be registered? The state isn't checking that registered cars are also insured?

tptacek 3y ago
You technically can't drive a car off a lot without proving you have insurance coverage (at least in every state I've lived in), and, when you re-register your car every year, you'll again need to prove insurance coverage; failure to re-register deprives you of a sticker you'll need to keep from being pulled over. So in that sense, the system coheres. But insurance coverage can fluctuate over the course of a year, because unlike with health insurance, there's no annual enrollment period; people switch insurers, or miss bills, or sign up ruthlessly for a month of insurance to get past the state bureaucracy and then just never pay again. There's the SR-22 system, which is a court order to maintain insurance at minimum levels, which you get for getting repeatedly pulled over without insurance (or, perhaps, for getting pulled over without proof of insurance and then not proving you did get coverage afterwards). But that's not a fix, because you can only enforce it at police traffic stops.
- thfuran 3y ago
  >failure to re-register deprives you of a sticker you'll need to keep from being pulled over My car is insured and registered, but it has been the better part of ten years since I actually bothered to put a new sticker on the plate. Maybe there are places where cops try to more actively police expired plates, but it certainly doesn't seem to be a thing around here.
- flutas 3y ago
  > failure to re-register deprives you of a sticker you'll need to keep from being pulled over. So in that sense, the system coheres. anecdata, but in my town of 60k people, any one drive I do I couldn't even count on my hands the number of expired temp tags (I've seen over a year old), and expired registration. It really _feels_ like people don't get pulled over for that anymore.
  - tptacek 3y ago
    I get pulled over for it constantly, including within the last year. Chicago.
- loeg 3y ago
  My state (WA) doesn't check for insurance at registration, as far as I know. I renew in December so it's pretty recent and I can't remember ever doing that. Also, realpolitik: my city's police simply don't do traffic enforcement since 2020 (Seattle). You could probably go a long time with expired registration here as long as you didn't leave city limits.
Palomides 3y ago
it's required to have it, but in my state (ohio), you only have to prove it if you cause an accident or get pulled over by a cop the poor or un-insurable go without and just hope they aren't caught
afruitpie 3y ago
Anecdotal, but since I started cycling I’ve noticed an absurd amount of cars have license plate tabs that have been expired for years. There’s even a Porsche Taycan in my apartment that’s been driving without plates for over a year. It doesn’t seem like registration is enforced in any meaningful way.
- sh34r 3y ago
  It used to be, but there's a pandemic of the blue flu going around. Cops have been quiet quitting for 4 years because they want to be able to murder with impunity again.
- randcraw 3y ago
  Many states (like PA) have abandoned licence tags to save a few pennies. Unless you're a cop, it's impossible to know if any vehicle's registration is up-to-date. And most cops no longer track this stuff visually either. It's my impression that most patrol cars today have autonomous cameras installed that check every license plate in their field of view for expired registrations and outstanding warrants. Many police cameras likely do facial recognition too. (Numerous states subscribe generously to commercial services that sell face recog with no independent certification of accuracy, which is famously terrible, like a 90% error rate.)
  - willsmith72 3y ago
    Not American, what's a licence tag? And why isn't the licence plate enough to check insurance/rego?
    - ultrarunner 3y ago
      They make you add a new sticker to the license plate with an expiration date and new color or other visual marker. This is to make it obvious whether taxes have been paid. But now they just have automatic license plate readers for that, (and can also log vehicle locations and look for warrants, etc). It isn't or wasn't enough because these systems are archaic and poorly designed (as I once found out after being pulled over at gunpoint for a DMV mistake).
bitzun 3y ago
In Texas, if you don't get in an accident, cops will rarely spot that your registration is out of date and definitely won't check if you have insurance. If you do get in an accident and are lacking a driver's license and/or insurance and/or current registration, they'll take the report, maybe issue a citation and usually just let you leave if the car can drive.
ultrarunner 3y ago
Some states do communicate with the insurance companies. However, sometimes the insurance companies fail to notify the state (or the state fails to record it) and we get to have a friendly police interaction and sort the whole thing out in court. I imagine past some threshold, even if the cops do know that someone isn't insured it's just not worth running a whole anti-uninsured-driver campaign.

How can 1 out of 8 driver be uninsured in that country? Aren't the cars supposed to be registered? The state isn't checking that registered cars are also insured?

tptacek 3y ago

You technically can't drive a car off a lot without proving you have insurance coverage (at least in every state I've lived in), and, when you re-register your car every year, you'll again need to prove insurance coverage; failure to re-register deprives you of a sticker you'll need to keep from being pulled over. So in that sense, the system coheres. But insurance coverage can fluctuate over the course of a year, because unlike with health insurance, there's no annual enrollment period; people switch insurers, or miss bills, or sign up ruthlessly for a month of insurance to get past the state bureaucracy and then just never pay again. There's the SR-22 system, which is a court order to maintain insurance at minimum levels, which you get for getting repeatedly pulled over without insurance (or, perhaps, for getting pulled over without proof of insurance and then not proving you did get coverage afterwards). But that's not a fix, because you can only enforce it at police traffic stops.

thfuran 3y ago
>failure to re-register deprives you of a sticker you'll need to keep from being pulled over My car is insured and registered, but it has been the better part of ten years since I actually bothered to put a new sticker on the plate. Maybe there are places where cops try to more actively police expired plates, but it certainly doesn't seem to be a thing around here.
flutas 3y ago
> failure to re-register deprives you of a sticker you'll need to keep from being pulled over. So in that sense, the system coheres. anecdata, but in my town of 60k people, any one drive I do I couldn't even count on my hands the number of expired temp tags (I've seen over a year old), and expired registration. It really _feels_ like people don't get pulled over for that anymore.
- tptacek 3y ago
  I get pulled over for it constantly, including within the last year. Chicago.
loeg 3y ago
My state (WA) doesn't check for insurance at registration, as far as I know. I renew in December so it's pretty recent and I can't remember ever doing that. Also, realpolitik: my city's police simply don't do traffic enforcement since 2020 (Seattle). You could probably go a long time with expired registration here as long as you didn't leave city limits.

Palomides 3y ago

it's required to have it, but in my state (ohio), you only have to prove it if you cause an accident or get pulled over by a cop the poor or un-insurable go without and just hope they aren't caught

afruitpie 3y ago

Anecdotal, but since I started cycling I’ve noticed an absurd amount of cars have license plate tabs that have been expired for years. There’s even a Porsche Taycan in my apartment that’s been driving without plates for over a year. It doesn’t seem like registration is enforced in any meaningful way.

sh34r 3y ago
It used to be, but there's a pandemic of the blue flu going around. Cops have been quiet quitting for 4 years because they want to be able to murder with impunity again.
randcraw 3y ago
Many states (like PA) have abandoned licence tags to save a few pennies. Unless you're a cop, it's impossible to know if any vehicle's registration is up-to-date. And most cops no longer track this stuff visually either. It's my impression that most patrol cars today have autonomous cameras installed that check every license plate in their field of view for expired registrations and outstanding warrants. Many police cameras likely do facial recognition too. (Numerous states subscribe generously to commercial services that sell face recog with no independent certification of accuracy, which is famously terrible, like a 90% error rate.)
- willsmith72 3y ago
  Not American, what's a licence tag? And why isn't the licence plate enough to check insurance/rego?
  - ultrarunner 3y ago
    They make you add a new sticker to the license plate with an expiration date and new color or other visual marker. This is to make it obvious whether taxes have been paid. But now they just have automatic license plate readers for that, (and can also log vehicle locations and look for warrants, etc). It isn't or wasn't enough because these systems are archaic and poorly designed (as I once found out after being pulled over at gunpoint for a DMV mistake).

bitzun 3y ago

In Texas, if you don't get in an accident, cops will rarely spot that your registration is out of date and definitely won't check if you have insurance. If you do get in an accident and are lacking a driver's license and/or insurance and/or current registration, they'll take the report, maybe issue a citation and usually just let you leave if the car can drive.

ultrarunner 3y ago

Some states do communicate with the insurance companies. However, sometimes the insurance companies fail to notify the state (or the state fails to record it) and we get to have a friendly police interaction and sort the whole thing out in court. I imagine past some threshold, even if the cops do know that someone isn't insured it's just not worth running a whole anti-uninsured-driver campaign.