Uninsured Drivers in Ohio

There’s a wide range of estimates regarding the number of uninsured drivers in Ohio. Because Ohio has a financial responsibility (FR) law, not a pure compulsory insurance law, it’s difficult to truly gauge the number of Ohioans not complying with the FR law and are therefore considered uninsured. A definitive percentage or range for those who may be driving without insurance or other means of financial responsibility would be purely speculative unless a proportionate number of drivers from various parts of the state were randomly stopped and asked for FR proof.

What is tracked is the FR status of drivers involved in crashes and how many have been found at-fault in crashes. This information is provided in the chart below for 1996–2002.

According to the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV), the threat of license suspension and the addition of more FR law enforcement mechanisms likely motivated motorists to come into compliance with Ohio law in the years immediately following the strengthening of the law. Since October 1995, law enforcement has been checking Ohio drivers for FR proof at the scene of a crash, when issuing a traffic citation or during a vehicle safety inspection.

In 2001 Ohio’s uninsured drivers involved in crashes and those found at-fault in crashes started to rise.

BMV random verification program

An additional enforcement measure was introduced by the BMV in December 1998. The BMV began randomly selecting Ohio vehicle owners who receive a form requesting that they mail in proof of compliance with Ohio’s financial responsibility law based on a specified date. Click here for the specifics regarding the BMV’s random verification program.

1 Based on ODPS at-fault percentage total of 49.9%
2 Figures for 1999 are provisional

Source: Ohio Department of Public Safety, Ohio Traffic Crash Facts, 1996–2002 editions

Uninsured motorist studies

An Insurance Research Council (IRC) study from December 2000 found 13.7% of US drivers uninsured. According to the study, the problem of driving uninsured varies greatly among states, from a high of 32.4% in Colorado to a low of 4.1% in Maine. The IRC study estimates Ohio’s uninsured motorist (UM) rate at 12.6%. The chart below provides estimates of uninsured drivers by state.

IRC calculations were based on the ratio of claims by individuals injured by uninsured drivers (UM coverage) to claims by individuals injured by insured drivers (bodily injury liability coverage) for 1995–1997. 16 states and the District of Columbia had ratios of UM to bodily injury (BI) claim frequencies above the US average of 13.7%, and 34 states had ratios below the US average.

The IRC study found that Ohio’s 1995–1997 UM claim frequency was .179 per 100 vehicles (US average was .193) and its BI claim frequency was 1.42 per 100 vehicles (US average was 1.40). In a similar report released by the IRC in 1999, Cleveland East had the highest uninsured motorist claim frequency at .705 compared to the state average of .195. Cleveland East also had Ohio’s highest UM loss cost at $46.18, compared to the state average of $10.98.

Ohio Supreme Court cases affecting UM coverage

The November 2003 Ohio Supreme Court decision in Westfield v. Galatis, overturned its 1999 Scott-Pontzer v. Liberty Mutual Fire Co. decision, allowing commercial auto UM coverage to apply as it was intended. The Court’s ruling limits UM/UIM claims only to those cases where the employee is acting within the scope of his or her employment. The decision basically cancelled existing Scott-Pontzer claims where the plaintiff was not acting within the course and scope of employment at the time of the crash.

The Scott-Pontzer ruling allowed individuals to file claims through a business’ commercial auto policy for UM/UIM coverage when the individual was not driving an employer’s vehicle, not acting within the scope of their employment or, in some cases, not even an employee of the business.

The Court revisited its prior ruling in Scott-Pontzer and limited its application to only those situations where an employee was within the course and scope of employment. The 4–3 majority reasoned that the Court could limit the prior decision because Scott-Pontzer was wrongly decided, the decision defied practical workability, and that abandoning the prior precedent would not create undue hardship upon those who relied upon it. The Galatis decision surprised Ohio’s judicial community and court-watchers because the court took a strong position in correcting a string of recent UM decisions. The Court abandoned the principal of stare decisis, in which courts generally let decisions of previous courts stand. While a generally accepted legal practice, stare decisis has never prevented courts from revisiting decisions that were hastily or erroneously decided–which was what the Galatis court did in this instance.

Source: Insurance Research Council, state averages for 1995–1997

Uninsured (UM) drivers in the United Kingdom cost law-abiding drivers £850 million in 2002, paid out by the UK’s Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB). MIB funding, which comes from insurers and taxpayers, equates to £30 a year for each of the UK’s 28 million law-abiding drivers. The payout confirms the UK as the second worst, after Greece, in Western Europe for driving without insurance. It’s estimated that one in 20 UK drivers (about 1.5 million) are uninsured. (Daily Mirror, 2/26/03)