STIFF PENALTIES COULD SPUR AUTO INSURANCE

Taking financial responsibility for owning a motor vehicle in Missouri is still too often ignored. State officials estimate that more than 7 percent of the vehicles licensed in Missouri aren't insured. This is a best guess, because vehicles aren't required to be registered at the same address where they are insured.

Starting next January, however, the penalties will become stiffer for failing to insure vehicles as required by law.

Currently, the only penalty for not being insured is an administrative license suspension for up to two years by the Department of Revenue. But the department doesn't have enough staff to keep up with the possible violations, so not everyone who is caught without insurance actually has his or her license suspended.

And taking away a driver's license may not be the best answer anyway. Some officials in the Department of Revenue and in the insurance industry worry that suspending licenses leads too often to the compounded violation of driving without a license.

The fact is that many motorists consider driving a car to be a right, not a privilege. In addition, there is the cost of auto insurance. For those who routinely buy auto insurance, the premiums are higher than they should be because of the large number of motorists who aren't insured and then are involved in accidents.

Some in the insurance industry would like to see even stiffer penalties for driving without proper insurance. This isn't just a ploy to sell more insurance. Rather, it is intended to more fairly distribute the cost of insurance among all motorists, not just the law-abiding ones who always keep their auto insurance premiums current.

In addition to fines that are at least as costly as insurance premiums, other measures could help cut the number of uninsured motorists. For example, violators could be required to perform community service, and a portion of their wages could be ordered to pay for restitution for damages caused by uninsured vehicles. An even more drastic step might be for the state to share some of the fines collected with insurance companies in an effort to offset premiums for uninsured or underinsured motorists.

There doesn't seem to be a surefire way to require every vehicle to be properly insured. The new law is a step in the right direction, but there are plenty of ways to circumvent those new requirements without maintaining auto insurance.

Strict enforcement also will be a key when the new law goes into effect. The stiffer requirements plus careful enforcement will help.