I understand the frustration of having some drunk be convicted and then go driving down the road again, with or without insurance … anyone can buy new tabs, and that is often enough to keep you from being pulled over. Perhaps it is time to look to what our neighbors to the north do.
In British Columbia, auto tabs are sold with an expiration date for both the registration and the insurance. If a car has legal tabs, it has legal insurance; if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.
As insurance rates are determined by a driver’s history, those with bad records will have difficulty obtaining a car to drive if they can’t pay the rates; drivers with no license won’t be able to purchase insurance and can’t get tabs for their cars. This could have an immediate impact, as police already pull over cars with expired tabs; now they will be able to get more unsafe drivers off the road.
Anything that will reduce the problem of repeat offenders turning our roads into kill zones is worth considering, especially if it turns out to be a low-cost solution. Perhaps it is time to look at a system like this to see if it would help.
Steve Winnie
Everett
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