Drivers in Oklahoma who forgot to bring their insurance verification can breathe a sigh of relief now that a new law does away with the penalty for the former violation—provided they already have insurance.
House Bill 2473, signed into law April 21, removes the penalty for failing to produce proof of insurance when an officer is able to verify that the driver in question indeed has insurance.
“Let’s modernize this ‘dinosaur’ statute,” Rep. Ken Walker (R-Tulsa) said. “It simply is not appropriate for law enforcement to fine a citizen who has insurance but may have, for a myriad of reasons, not have the proof of it on their person or in their vehicle on any given day. I do understand that there may be instances in which someone’s insurance can’t be verified, so my bill covers that by only removing the penalty in certain instances. I think it is more than appropriate to remove an inconvenience that does not serve a purpose.”
Walker further stated that many drivers accidentally break the law by simply misplacing their verification, or by not having the latest version of their documents.
“I think we all have forgotten our wallet or jumped in our spouse’s car and accidentally failed to have our insurance verification form on us. It’s a universal mistake and one that should not carry a fine when law enforcement has access to a database to verify insurance. What the database says actually trumps the form, under current law,” he noted.
Walker reminded, however, that drivers should still carry their insurance verification at all times.
“This doesn’t do away with the need to carry an insurance verification form,” he warned. “It basically just provides grace to law-abiding citizens for a simple mistake. That grace does require that their insurance can be verified through a database.”
