When Russellville resident Apollo Proctor was in an accident three years ago, he was left with a variety of injuries and a nearly totaled vehicle.
The other driver, a young Hispanic man, gave the Russellville police officer who responded to the scene his insurance information. The other driver, who was at fault according to police, was allowed to drive away from the scene, Proctor said, even though he didn’t have a license.
It wasn’t until days later that Proctor learned the other driver didn’t have insurance with the company he represented to police. In fact, Proctor was told that company had no record of ever insuring the driver.
That left Proctor to turn to his father’s insurance (his father Donald owned the vehicle) to cover the vehicle damage.
As a result of the accident, Proctor lost his job after he was fired for being unable to work. Three years later, he still walks with a cane and suffers from bulging discs in his lower back. And to further add to his misery, Proctor lost his vehicle when he was unable to make the payments after losing his job.
That’s a mountain of issues staring down on someone unfortunate enough to be injured by an uninsured driver, a problem that continues in Alabama even with new laws requiring drivers to have liability insurance.
“It’s caused a lot of stress on me and my father. I lost my car since that accident because I can’t work as much as I did at one time,” Proctor said. “It makes me wonder how the state enforces mandatory insurance. He didn’t get a ticket or anything, and they didn’t tow his vehicle from the scene.”
The Alabama Legislature passed the Mandatory Liability Insurance Law in 2016. That law reads that “no person shall operate, register or maintain registration of a motor vehicle designed to be used on a public road or highway unless it is covered by a liability insurance policy.”
Alabama law requires each vehicle to be covered by at least $25,000 for death or bodily injury to one person and $50,000 for death or bodily injury to two or more persons, and $25,000 for damage to property.
A 2015 report from the Insurance Research Council found that almost 20 percent of Alabama drivers were uninsured.
Law enforcement now uses online insurance verification, and drivers who have no liability insurance face a fine of $200 for a first offense, $300 for a second offense and $400 for a third or subsequent offense.
Additionally, when you apply for a tag for a new vehicle or renew a tag, proof of insurance must be presented to the Revenue Commissioner’s office.
“We require proof of insurance, then the state monitors it from there. If it’s canceled, the insurance company notifies the state and a notice is sent to the driver,” said Franklin County revenue commissioner Veronica Stancil. “If a driver fails to respond to that notice, there is a fee added to the next time the vehicle is registered. You must either pay the fee or provide proof the vehicle actually had insurance at the time.”
Stancil acknowledges it’s not a perfect system, but she believes it’s an improvement over the old system.
“It’s a headache for us sometimes when the insurance lapses and the state may pull that up from two years ago,” Stancil said. “But, overall, I feel like it’s helping increase the number of people who get liability insurance.”
For drivers who get notice of no liability insurance, they must either pay the fee or request a hearing within 45 days. The penalty for failing to do so is a 90-day license suspension and a $100 reinstatement fee.
While these stiffer penalties should help increase the percentage of insured drivers in Alabama, they came too late to help Proctor.
“We did the right thing and had liability insurance on my vehicle,” Proctor said. “But he got away with an accident that was his fault with no accountability, and that’s not right.”
