The uninsured driver

By Jeff Wilford

Wednesday, June 11, 2003 11:17 AM CDT

RACINE - David T. Boehler is just the kind of person that a proposed bill, to make mandatory car insurance the law in Wisconsin, would help.

Boehler is also just the kind of person it would hurt.

Boehler, 20, was driving his 1989 Ford F-150 pickup on Saturday afternoon when another driver pulled out from a stop sign and hit his truck in the intersection at North Memorial Drive and Albert Street.

Since the accident, Boehler's knee has been leaking fluid and may need surgery. His truck is a mess, too. The wheels no longer sit straight in the wheelwells, and it's hard to drive it straight.

Boehler figures either the frame or the axle is bent. Either way, he figures it will cost at least $1,500 to fix it.

Here's how mandatory car insurance could help Boehler: The driver who hit him was uninsured, so it's still unknown if she'll be able to pay the costs to fix his truck and knee. That wouldn't have been an issue if she had carried insurance.

Here's how it could hurt him: Boehler, too, is uninsured. "They're asking crazy high prices," Boehler said, and he can't afford car insurance. That's why he doesn't support the idea of making it mandatory.

"Because there's people like that has a child to support and has to work for a living," Boehler said. "And the only way I have to get to and from work is my vehicle, and I can't support my child if I can't get work, and I can't afford car insurance."

Wisconsin is one of only three states that doesn't have mandatory car insurance. New Hampshire and Tennessee are the other two. State Rep. John Lehman, D-Racine, wants to change that.

He has written a bill, and is circulating it for co-sponsors, that would require drivers to carry liability car insurance or face a $500 fine.

"I think there's a presumption out there from motorists that when you're driving down the street, the other guy is insured," Lehman said. "And it seems to me, that if you're going to be getting in the car and getting behind the wheel, you should ensure that vehicle is insured. The burden shouldn't be on somebody else's insurance policy."

Wisconsin already has one of the lowest rates of uninsured drivers in the nation - 10.8 percent in 2000, according to the state Division of Motor Vehicles.

But Lehman said we could be doing better, even if mandatory car insurance brought about higher premiums for all drivers, like insurance companies warn could happen.

Lehman's bill, if considered and then passed by the Legislature, would replace the state's safety responsibility law, which requires uninsured drivers to pay for damages they caused or lose their licenses.

In most cases, Wisconsin's existing law is enough. In less than 2 percent of accidents in 2000, owners of uninsured vehicles didn't pay for the damages and opted for the license suspension, according to the DMV.

It is those kind of people, the ones who don't pay, that has prompted 47 states and the District of Columbia to require car insurance, said Cheye Calvo, an insurance police analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

"All people who cause motor vehicle accidents need to be held financially responsible for the accidents they cause," Calvo said. "As a public policy matter, a number of states have said the only way they can legally require people to be financially responsible is to have auto insurance in advance."

Insurers are against mandatory car insurance. Their reasons include: * The law is difficult to enforce.

* It may raise everybody's premiums because insurers would have to take on high-risk drivers they might otherwise avoid.

* It unfairly punishes poor people who can't afford car insurance.

A 1992 study, commissioned by the National Association of Independent Insurers, looked at how mandatory car insurance affected poor people in Maricopa County, Ariz. That study found that poor people often had to put off other expenses - like food, rent, medical and car expenses - to pay for car insurance.

"It comes down to a social issue. You have these folks, they don't have a lot of money, they don't have a lot of assets to protect, so they don't carry insurance," said Dan Kummer, director of auto insurance for the NAII. "But they need to go to work, and they need to put food on the table. Those people are going to drive, and a lot of them are not going to have insurance. Not because they don't want to, but because they can't afford to."

People like David Boehler.

Boehler earns $8 an hour, 40 hours a week, working for a company that sterilizes and disposes of medical waste. He pays child support for a daughter he can't afford to visit in California. Car insurance would cost him between $130 and $160 a month, which he said wouldn't leave him much money to keep his truck running.

Boehler's just waiting to see if the other driver can pay to fix his truck. Boehler summed up his options if she can't.

"If anything," he said, "I'm pretty much S.O.L., if worse comes to worse."

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