Back in February, I told you about how the state of California had issued driver’s licenses to an estimated 605,000 undocumented immigrants illegal aliens. At that time, immigrant rights groups and traffic safety experts said it means more drivers will be properly trained, licensed and more likely to have car insurance. “We believe that this new law increases safety on California roads by putting licensed drivers behind the steering wheel,” Artemio Armenta, a spokesman for the California Department of Motor Vehicles, told the Los Angeles Times.
Um, guess again.
Via Fox News: Southern California mom-of-two Jennifer Brawley had just been rear-ended by a truck driver near Rancho Cucamonga, and was preparing for the post-accident ritual of exchanging insurance information when the driver handed her his cellphone. A voice on the other end explained that his non-English speaking friend had no coverage.
Police came to the scene and determined the driver had a valid license, and sent him on his way. Brawley, grateful to be unhurt, was nonetheless left with a feeling that something wasn’t quite right. In the push to grant illegal immigrants driver’s licenses, Californians had been assured that doing so would spur them to get safety training and insurance coverage. Nearly a year-and-a-half later, there’s no evidence it worked.
“It is hard to pinpoint whether the bill has had an impact or not,” said Jeffrey Spring, spokesman for the American Automobile Association’s California chapter. “We have no way of knowing.”
The law, and a three-year, $141 million program designed to implement it, did not provide for a way to measure if illegal immigrants are any more inclined to buy insurance.
“There are no statistics regarding how many new license holders under AB 60, purchased vehicle insurance,” said California Department of Motor Vehicles spokesman Artemio Armenta. “We cannot relate our vehicle insurance data to driver licenses because the vehicle registration information is only associated with individual vehicles and cannot be used to identify any trends related to AB 60. Drivers under AB 60 are not tracked or singled out any differently.” “The DMV cannot relate our vehicle insurance data to driver licenses because the vehicle registration information is only associated with individual vehicles and cannot be used to identify any trends to AB 60,” Armenta said.
The DMV estimates that at least 1.4 million drivers will apply for a license over the next three years. As of March, the state had issued approximately 696,000 driver’s licenses under the program. The program does not compel them to get auto insurance, and even if they get the coverage required to register a vehicle, they could stop paying premiums as many drivers do.
“I’m sure some drivers bought insurance before they took their test but in many cases they just don’t pay the next month and it’s canceled,” said anti-illegal immigration activist Don Rosenberg, whose son Drew was killed in 2010 in San Francisco by an unlicensed, uninsured driver who had entered the country illegally but was granted protective status.
The law was part of a bundle of immigration measures designed to make California friendlier toward illegal immigrant residents. The state hired 1,000 temporary DMV workers, opened four new processing centers and extended hours in an effort to deal with the anticipated inundation onf the system – which was reportedly even higher than expected – as almost half a million applications came through in the first three months alone.
It was clear that illegal immigrants wanted driver’s licenses, but there is scant evidence supporters of the law were correct in saying it would spur them to get insurance.
If licensed illegal immigrants want to buy auto insurance, the state provides a low-cost option. The California Department of Insurance markets the state-sponsored, Low Cost Auto Insurance Program for low income earners through Spanish-language media. Plans provide minimal liability coverage with annual premiums as low as $241. The coverage is less than what is mandated for other drivers who purchase policies through private insurance companies, paying a statewide average of just below $2,000 per year.
Read the whole story here.
DCG