Wrangell experienced an uptick in the number of people cited for driving without insurance in late June and early July. Though the bump in citations may or may not indicate a trend, driving without insurance is “a big deal,” said Police Chief Tom Radke.
The police department doesn’t keep data on the percentage of Wrangell drivers unable to provide proof of insurance at traffic stops. However, after no traffic stops with failure to show proof of insurance reported between the beginning of May and June 11, the department’s reporting period between June 12 and July 2 had eight instances of failure to show proof of insurance.
A spike in citations is not unusual; the department issued eight citations over a two-week period in late January and early February.
“I think it’s a combination of events,” Radke said of the citations. Traffic stops have become more frequent now that the department is fully staffed and pandemic restrictions have been lifted, so the likelihood of finding uninsured drivers is higher. “I think coming out of the pandemic, I think everybody’s gotten a little lazy,” he said of unlicensed or uninsured drivers. “It is what it is. We’re still recovering from something that happened going on two years ago.”
In Alaska, driving without insurance can result in a fine of up to $500 with a possible license suspension of up to 90 days for a first offense. The penalty is up to the court, not the police. Offenders may also be required to pay for a more expensive “high-risk” insurance policy.
For Susan Erickson of Petersburg-Wrangell Insurance, uninsured drivers have been an issue for her entire 37 years in the business.
“I can tell you that we have always paid a phenomenal amount for uninsured motorist claims,” she said. “More so than underinsured motorists. The problem I have always seen is that people say, ‘my truck’s a piece of junk, it’s not worth anything. It’s only worth $500, insurance would cost me more than that.’ The problem is your truck is going to collide with another person. … Where are you going to come up with $1,000 at the time to pay for their medical?”
State-required minimum coverage policies are often not as costly as people expect, she added. For someone with no prior accidents, she estimated about $50 per month.
And though the court fines can hurt, the impact that points against a drivers license can have on the price of car insurance can hurt even more, Radke explained.
If a driver is insured but unable to produce insurance documents during a traffic stop, Radke reminded residents that they can always visit the police department up to 15 days later with proof. If a driver has lost their documents, they even get their insurance company on the phone and put them in touch with the police. “It’s not a fineable offense if you can come in and prove that you do have insurance,” Radke said. The fee, and other consequences relating to driving uninsured, will be waived in that case.
The state of Alaska is ranked 14th in the nation for the percentage of drivers who are uninsured — 16.1% in 2019, according to the Insurance Information Institute.
For the most part, everybody here has been pretty good about it,” Radke said. “If they don’t have proof (at the time of a traffic stop), we get a lot of people who come in, or you can have it on your phone.”
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