BIRMINGHAM, AL, January 10, 2013 (Press-News.org) Nearly 1 in 4 Alabama motorists do not currently carry any auto liability insurance. To put Alabama's uninsured motorist problem in context, the state ranks 6th in the nation for the highest number of uninsured drivers and 5th for most fatal traffic accidents per capita. When those two statistics are combined, Alabama becomes one of the most dangerous states for drivers.
As with many public safety laws, Alabama's growing dilemma with uninsured motorists stems from a lack of enforcement of its mandatory auto liability insurance law. Although state law requires a motorist to carry a liability policy with at least $25,000 in bodily injury/$50,000 per occurrence, many drivers learned to beat the system.
The state has traditionally "enforced" its auto liability law by requiring motorists to show proof of insurance upon the renewal of their vehicle's tag and/or during a traffic stop. However, the process stopped as a driver showing "proof" of insurance; state officials were not equipped to actually verify that such insurance was valid at the time of presentation. Thus, many drivers simply enrolled into an auto policy, obtained an insurance card showing 6 months to 12 months in coverage, and immediately cancelled their policy. Meanwhile, these drivers still had "proof of insurance" to show to law enforcement agents.
As of January 1, 2013, Alabama has finally implemented an instant verification system to keep motorists from "gaming the system." A new statewide database now allows state officials and patrol officers to disregard a drivers "proof" of insurance and check the policy's validity at any time--including during a traffic stop. Since the state's liability law requires any registered motor vehicle to carry a minimum level of insurance at all times, the new verification system also allows officials to randomly scan the database for offenders and issue citations through the mail.
"I am glad to learn that Alabama has taken action to enforce its mandatory auto liability law," stated attorney Whit Drake. Mr. Drake, who has been an Alabama car accident lawyer for over two decades, added that the new enforcement scheme may actually provide victims an avenue for recovering damages that they are entitled to under state law. "When an uninsured motorist causes an accident, the victim is often required to assume responsibility for medical expenses, lost wages, property damage, and other out-of-pocket bills. If the new system is effective, the number of uninsured drivers will drop and directly reduce the number of Alabama car accident victims stuck with uncompensated damages caused by someone else," noted Drake.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
The Alabama personal injury lawyers at Drake Law Firm provide statewide representation to injured individuals for claims stemming from motor vehicle collisions, tractor trailer accidents, premises liability, products liability, and accidents resulting in wrongful death. For more information on the firm, visit their website at www.drakelawal.com.
Alabama Car Accident Attorney Applauds State's New Insurance Verification System
Alabama recently adopted an auto insurance verification system in an attempt to reduce the number of uninsured motorists in the state. This article explains how the new system may prevent motorists from circumventing the state's auto insurance law.
2013-01-10
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
AgilQuest Corporation Brings Space Utilization and Office Hoteling Software to iPhone With New Release of OnBoard Workplace Management
2013-01-10
AgilQuest Corporation released a new version of OnBoard, their hoteling and conference room management technology, continuing features and capabilities which increase their lead in the workplace optimization market for large commercial firms and federal government agencies.
"Our customers asked for help shifting their culture from day-at-a-time to hour-by-hour and to support the location-aware phones everyone has, so we are delivering that and more in version 5.5." says Torrance Houlihan, VP of Product Management.
As the leader in hoteling technology for ...
Case Study Examines Prizes for Innovation in Assessment
2013-01-10
Getting Smart released a report on the Automated Student Assessment Prize (ASAP). The case study illustrates a powerful philanthropic use of prizes to drive focused innovation with the goal of promoting deeper learning.
The first two phases of ASAP were sponsored by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to promote focused innovation in student writing assessment.
"ASAP was designed to answer a basic question: Can a computer grade a student-written response on a state-administered test as well as or better than a human grader?" explained co-author Jaison ...
Who and What Drives MBA Rankings? MBA Compass Compares Businessweek, Financial Times, Economist, Forbes, and US News
2013-01-10
MBA Rankings are used to assess the quality of programs and schools. Depending on the publisher, however, rankings follow different methodologies. The platform Master of Business Administration Compass explored internationally recognized full-time MBA rankings from Businessweek, Financial Times, Economist, Forbes, and US News using three dimensions:
Ranking criteria: Which topics are covered by the ranking?
Sources of information: Who provides the information?
Influence: Which groups and topics are given the highest weighting and have greatest impact on the ranking? ...
NASA's Hubble reveals rogue planetary orbit for Fomalhaut B
2013-01-09
Newly released NASA Hubble Space Telescope images of a vast debris disk encircling the nearby star Fomalhaut and a mysterious planet circling it may provide forensic evidence of a titanic planetary disruption in the system.
Astronomers are surprised to find the debris belt is wider than previously known, spanning a section of space from 14 to nearly 20 billion miles from the star. Even more surprisingly, the latest Hubble images have allowed a team of astronomers to calculate the planet follows an unusual elliptical orbit that carries it on a potentially destructive ...
Nursing gerbils unravel benefit of multiple mothers in collective mammals
2013-01-09
In mammals such as rodents that raise their young as a group, infants will nurse from their mother as well as other females, a dynamic known as allosuckling. Ecologists have long hypothesized that allosuckling lets newborns stockpile antibodies to various diseases, but the experimental proof has been lacking until now.
An in-press report in the journal Mammalian Biology found that infant Mongolian gerbils that suckled from females given separate vaccines for two different diseases wound up with antibodies for both illnesses.
The findings not only demonstrate the potential ...
Scientists peer into a brown dwarf, find stormy atmosphere
2013-01-09
A University of Arizona-led team of astronomers for the first time has used NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes simultaneously to peer into the stormy atmosphere of a brown dwarf, creating the most detailed "weather map" yet for this class of strange, not-quite-star-and-not-quite-planet objects. The forecast shows wind-driven, planet-sized clouds enshrouding these strange worlds.
Brown dwarfs form out of condensing gas like stars but fail to accrue enough mass to ignite the nuclear fusion process necessary to turn them into a star. Instead, they pass their lives ...
Asteroid belt found around Vega
2013-01-09
Vega, the second brightest star in northern night skies, has an asteroid belt much like our sun, discovered by a University of Arizona-lead team of astronomers. A wide gap between the dust belts in nearby bright stars is a strong hint of yet-undiscovered planets orbiting the stars.
The findings from the Infrared Space Telescopes are the first to show an asteroid-like belt ringing Vega. The discovery of an asteroid belt around Vega makes it more similar to its twin, a star called Fomalhaut, than previously known. Both stars now are known to have inner, warm asteroid belts ...
JCI early table of contents for Jan. 9, 2013
2013-01-09
Small peptide ameliorates autoimmune skin blistering disease in mice
Pemphigus vulgaris is a life-threatening autoimmune skin disease that is occurs when the body's immune system generates antibodies that target proteins in the skin known as desomogleins. Desmogleins help to form the adhesive bonds that hold skin cells together and keep the skin intact. Currently, pemphigus vulgaris is treated by long-term immune suppression; however, this can leave the patient susceptible to infection. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Jens Waschke ...
Small peptide ameliorates autoimmune skin blistering disease in mice
2013-01-09
Pemphigus vulgaris is a life-threatening autoimmune skin disease that is occurs when the body's immune system generates antibodies that target proteins in the skin known as desomogleins. Desmogleins help to form the adhesive bonds that hold skin cells together and keep the skin intact. Currently, pemphigus vulgaris is treated by long-term immune suppression; however, this can leave the patient susceptible to infection. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Jens Waschke at the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology in Munich, Germany, ...
Newly found 'volume control' in the brain promotes learning, memory
2013-01-09
WASHINGTON — Scientists have long wondered how nerve cell activity in the brain's hippocampus, the epicenter for learning and memory, is controlled — too much synaptic communication between neurons can trigger a seizure, and too little impairs information processing, promoting neurodegeneration. Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center say they now have an answer. In the January 10 issue of Neuron, they report that synapses that link two different groups of nerve cells in the hippocampus serve as a kind of "volume control," keeping neuronal activity throughout ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
With bird flu in raw milk, many in U.S. still do not know risks of consuming it
University of Minnesota research team awarded $3.8 million grant to develop cell therapy to combat Alzheimer’s disease
UConn uncovers new clue on what is leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and ALS
Resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest – it’s how quickly it is done, rather than who does it
A closer look at biomolecular ‘silly putty’
Oxytocin system of breastfeeding affected in mothers with postnatal depression
Liquid metal-enabled synergetic cooling and charging: a leap forward for electric vehicles
Defensive firearm use is far less common than exposure to gun violence
Lifetime and past-year defensive gun use
Lifetime health effects and cost-effectiveness of tirzepatide and semaglutide in US adults
New members of the CDKL family of genes linked to neurodevelopmental disorders
Advancements in organ preservation: paving the way for better transplantation outcomes
Pitt study makes new insights into the origins of ovarian cancer
Topical steroid withdrawal diagnostic criteria defined by NIH researchers
CeSPIACE: A broad-spectrum peptide inhibitor against variable SARS-CoV-2 spikes
Understanding the origin of magnetic moment enhancement in novel alloys
BU researchers develop computational tools to safeguard privacy without degrading voice-based cognitive markers
Breakthrough in rapid polymer nanostructure production
Artificial photosynthesis: Researchers mimic plants
Social disadvantage can accelerate ageing and increase disease risk
Breaking free from dependence on rare resources! A domestic high-performance permanent magnet emerges!
Symptoms of long-COVID can last up to two years after infection with COVID-19
Violence is forcing women in Northern Ireland into homelessness, finds new report
Latin American intensivists denounce economic and cultural inequities in the global scientific publishing system
Older adults might be more resistant to bird flu infections than children, Penn research finds
Dramatic increase in research funding needed to counter productivity slowdown in farming
How chemistry and force etch mysterious spiral patterns on solid surfaces
Unraveling the mysteries of polycystic kidney disease
Mother’s high-fat diet can cause liver stress in fetus, study shows
Weighing in on a Mars water debate
[Press-News.org] Alabama Car Accident Attorney Applauds State's New Insurance Verification SystemAlabama recently adopted an auto insurance verification system in an attempt to reduce the number of uninsured motorists in the state. This article explains how the new system may prevent motorists from circumventing the state's auto insurance law.