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For years, driving under the influence of alcohol was looked upon as a minor transgression. Police often let drunk drivers off with a warning, and in doing so, silently encouraged their dangerous behavior. Fortunately for the safety of motorists everywhere, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) arrived on the national scene and began publicizing the grave damage caused by intoxicated drivers. Slowly, laws were toughened and enforcement was stepped up. While drinking and driving is still a far too common occurrence, especially among young men, it is no longer socially tolerable or accepted. However, some would argue that the laws designed to discourage and punish drunk driving are still too lax.Of course, if you’ve been convicted of DUI, your opinion probably differs. You’ve had to endure the embarrassment and shame of court proceedings, and you may have had to pay costly fines or even spend some time in the county jail. And, of course, there are the auto insurance implications.
Drunk Drivers - The Riskiest of All Propositions for Insurance Companies
From an insurance company’s actuarial perspective, drunk drivers are a really bad risk. MADD reports that 30 percent of all fatal car crashes were alcohol related - and that’s just during the week. On the weekend, the rate soars to 51 percent. When you engage in the anti-social behavior of drunk driving, you are putting yourself in the riskiest of insurance pools, and your auto premiums are almost guaranteed to go up.
For this reason, many people convicted of DUI stop paying their insurance. Alternatively, insurance companies simply cancel the drunk driver’s coverage - they’re just to risky to insure.
States require drivers to have insurance in order to use the public roads. Since people convicted of DUI are more likely to go without insurance than the average person, many states give police officers the authority to cancel or suspend a drunk driver’s license at the scene of the crime. In order to get the licensed reinstated, drunk drivers must request an SR-22 form from their insurers.
SR-22 - The Public’s Way of Ensuring You’re Insured
The SR-22 serves two purposes. 1) It makes it impossible for you to escape a DUI-related traffic stop without your insurance company finding out about it. This should serve as a deterrent to would-be drunk drivers. 2) It ensures that if you’re convicted of DUI, you must maintain adequate insurance with no lapses in coverage. This is because you’re required to submit the SR-22 form to the DMV in order to get your license back. From that point on, your insurance company is bound by law to notify the DMV if it cancels your coverage, whereby the DMV will automatically suspend your license.
What if Your Insurance Company Cancels Your Coverage?
Most states allow your insurance company to cancel your policy if you’re convicted of DUI, even if you’re in the middle of coverage for which you’ve pre-paid. Other states require insurance companies to wait until the policy expires, and then issue a notice of non-renewal. Some insurance companies will cancel or not renew your policy because they view you as too great of a risk, and others will terminate your coverage because they don’t offer SR-22 policies.
Everybody makes mistakes - big ones, even. The real measure of a person is how they learn from them. If you’ve been convicted of DUI, you must first resolve to change your behavior, and then you need to go about putting your life back together. One step in doing so is finding adequate car insurance. Luckily, the internet provides a nonjudgmental, anonymous means of comparison shopping for the best SR-22 coverage. Some insurers will count your DUI as less of a negative if you have an otherwise decent driving record, so be sure to shop around for at least three quotes. Finding coverage after multiple DUI convictions isn’t nearly as easy, so please - for yourself and everyone else, don’t drink and drive.