Senate Bill No. 676
(By Senators Minard, Oliverio, Helmick, Jenkins and Unger)
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[Introduced March 23, 2009; referred to the Committee on Banking
and Insurance; and then to the Committee on Government
Organization.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §17D-2A-5 of the Code of West
Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to reducing the number
of uninsured motor vehicles operating in West Virginia by
requiring any motor insurance company licensed by the State
of West Virginia to electronically provide daily to the
Division of Motor Vehicles a notice of all active motor
vehicle insurance policies.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §17D-2A-5 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2A. SECURITY UPON MOTOR VEHICLES.
§17D-2A-5. Notice of insurance policy; suspension of
registration; minimum policy term.
(a)
An Any insurance company
shall provide the Division of
Motor Vehicles with a cancellation notice within ten days of the
effective date of cancellation whenever the company issues or
causes to be issued a cancellation under the provisions of
subsections (b) through (e), section one, article six-a, chapter
thirty-three of this code licensed to issue a contract of motor
vehicle liability insurance in the State of West Virginia shall,
on a daily basis, electronically provide the Division of Motor
Vehicles, or its agent, a notice of all active motor vehicle
insurance policies in the manner, and method prescribed by the
commissioner. Unless the Division of Motor Vehicles by
legislative rule allows for an alternative to suspension, the
division shall then suspend the driver license of the owner of
such vehicle for a period of thirty days and shall suspend the
motor vehicle registration until proof of insurance is presented
to the division. If, within the thirty-day period a license or
registration is suspended, the owner shows proof of insurance,
the owner's license and registration shall be immediately removed
from suspension. If a license or registration is not suspended
as result of the cancellation of insurance, the owner of the
motor vehicle shall submit a statement under penalty of false
swearing, that the cancellation will not result in the operation
of an uninsured motor vehicle upon the highways of this state, and this verification shall be sent to the commissioner within
twenty days of the notice of cancellation
.
(b) On or before January 15, 1985, the Commissioner of Motor
Vehicles shall report to the Legislature upon proceedings
pursuant to this section. The report shall include the total
number of statements selected for verification as required by
section three, article three, chapter seventeen-a, the total
number of notices received from insurers, the total number of
notices of pending suspensions issued and the total number of
cases in which cancellation was found to have resulted in a lapse
of coverage upon a vehicle operated upon the highways of this
state during the prior year
.
(c) No policy of motor vehicle liability insurance issued or
delivered for issuance in this state shall be contracted for a
period of less than ninety days.
Provided, That However, the
Insurance Commissioner may establish exceptions thereto by rules
and regulations to chapter twenty-nine-a.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to reduce the number of
uninsured motor vehicles operating in West Virginia by updating
the current system for verifying insurance coverage through the
issuance of paper insurance identification cards which is subject
to abuse and can be inaccurate because the current system does
not operate in "real time" and does not very accurately verify
that insurance coverage is currently in place on a vehicle.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.