Posted on 07/02/2009 6:23:39 PM PDT by optiguy
Red light cameras now check for insurance, too
Drive without insurance? Then you'd better stay out of Ohio, where the state is considering a program that uses red-light cameras and insurance company databases to check passing traffic for uninsured motorists. The system would use license plate numbers to verify driver insurance. According to the Columbus Dispatch, officials in Chicago, who are considering the same system, from InsureNet of Novi, Michigan, think that such a program could generate $200 million in additional revenue for the Windy City.
When the system identifies an uninsured motorist, the driver would be sent a letter instructing him to take care of the problem. If he doesn't, a fine will soon follow. In Ohio, that fine is $125 for a first offense, $300 for a second and $550 for a third.
The system is already being provided to law enforcement, free of charge, so even those uninsured drivers who managed to dodge the cameras can be busted if they catch the attention of a local gendarme. The system can also provide them lien reports in real time.
I'm all for requiring drivers to carry insurance, but I'm not pleased by the prospect of insurance company databases being opened for InsureNet's searches. I can see how this would be a good deal for the insurance companies, because it will drive business their way. For the general public, however, this feels like another step toward a Big Brother future.
everyday we get closer to 1984
Are you an insurrectionist?
Wire up all the home burglers so they can access the data base and then they’ll avoid heavily armed compounds.
great! i am tired of half the cars on the road with no insurance.
I see nothing wrong with this. I just wish anyone who was caught driving without the legally required insurance would have their car booted in addition to being subject to fines.
if you take everything into account it is much more like Clockwork Orange. I’d say in another 10 or 15 years it will be exactly like Clockwork Orange.......
Liberals... they always talk about how conservatives restrict freedom. Here, Ohio’s Democrat governor wants to restrict freedom. Not only that, this is what amounts to a regressive tax, something liberals say they hate. If one doesn’t have insurance, the chances are excellent that the individual is not doing well financially. So, what do they do? Take from the offender what he or she doesn’t have, money!
The road is uninsured?
(lol)
“great! i am tired of half the cars on the road with no insurance.”
What else don’t you like that you want to see big brother take care of?
Mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money.
Bet they won’t check to see if you’re in the country legally.
Imagine, me, the biggest complainer against dangling modifiers making a big one like that.....Glad you pointed it out.....
It is the law in most states that you must have liability insurance on your car. If you are stopped for a traffic violation a cop will ask for your insurance information and if you lack insurance you will be subject to penalty. If you are caught breaking the law in public why should you not be prosecuted for it?
Besides, the more uninsured drivers there are out there the more our insurance rates go up.
In favor of an organized opposition to our non-constitutional forms of government? Yep.
“Liberals... they always talk about how conservatives restrict freedom. Here, Ohio’s Democrat governor wants to restrict freedom. Not only that, this is what amounts to a regressive tax, something liberals say they hate. If one doesn’t have insurance, the chances are excellent that the individual is not doing well financially. So, what do they do? Take from the offender what he or she doesn’t have, money!”
If they can’t afford the minimum insurance required by law, can they afford to be driving in the first place?... would you be OK with an under insured asset-less driver causing you injury and loss that you couldn’t recover? would you simply say “they can’t afford to compensate me, but that’s ok, let then continue driving regardless”?
Driving is not a right, in fact it’s not even a necessity much of the time.
Maybe they can check to see if anyone’s modifier is dangling.
They’ve quietly started doing this in Silicon Valley, checking for expired tags and even if you’re using a year sticker from somebody else’s car.
There’s a group, not quite a ping list, that always alertss each other with bizarre sentences when they appear in the news or here of FR. Some, like the one I wrote, are hilarious.
Here in Texas, our Tags date stickers are in the lower lfet portion of the windshield. They are big and bright, but still, about %10 are expired.
Ok, I understand now. Government intrusion is ok, if it suits your purpose.
Nevermind that slippery slope.
No problem. There are several means to prevent this Government means of additonal taxation. Weveral are relatively cheapand easy to do.
where do you want the gov to draw the line? You want no gov intervention in any aspect of life?
“where do you want the gov to draw the line? You want no gov intervention in any aspect of life?”
IF they would make you show proof of insurance when you get your tags, annually, instead of making you sign a paper promising you have insurance, that would handle it. That, along with showing proof of insurance when you are pulled over.
The more information the government has acess to, the more potential there is for abuse.
Computers and networking have been great for us, and has provided me with a pretty good living, but sometimes I wonder.....
>> that always alertss each other with bizarre sentences
You don’s sssay?
Can you give me an example of a bizarre sentence with which you alertss the members of the list?
What, something like “Hey group, fish riding bicycle on aisle three”?
Explain how a camera busting someone for running a red light and lacking insurance is any different from a human cop doing the same exact thing. Should we allow lawbreakers to go unpunished instead?
I work in a place that is literally infested with speeding and red light cameras and have yet to get a single ticket from any of these devices. What is my secret you ask? I obey the law.
Weally?
Any freedom loving community seems to be duty bound to make those cameras expensive to maintain.
“I work in a place that is literally infested with speeding and red light cameras and have yet to get a single ticket from any of these devices. What is my secret you ask? I obey the law.”
I needn’t expand on my comments to you, you are already well groomed to be a good comrade.
Agreed.
Reminds me of BSG, where networked computers allowed the Cylons to take over and immobilize their enemy’s ships.
There’s stuff you can spray onto your license plate to make any picture taken flashed out so the numbers can’t be determined.
Oh, that reminds me. I’d recommend this pellet gun to anyone - cheap, shoots hard, and is very accurate, especially with a scope -
Crosman Phantom 1000.
Not that that has any connection to law enforcement cameras.
I was sorta thinking the same thing.. have a lot of cars from south of the border plates on them, will the residents of a foreign country then be stopped at the border from re entering the United States, if they dont show insurance...
Myth busters busted that one.
Doesn’t work.
That isn’t always true. Sometimes insurance goes up because these losers who didn’t have insurance at all, have to buy it. That’s what we’re dealing with in our state right now.
If they don’t have insurance, the companies don’t have these bad risks to cover. If they are mandated to get it, they may pay a higher rate, but they get just the bare minimum insurance, which if they hit you, won’t pay for hardly anything so you better have underinsured motorists coverage because they won’t be uninsured. So your rates may have to go up because you’re not carrying enough underinsured coverage.
This’ll never work. It discriminates against illegal aliens.
Do you have faith that the red light cameras actually "obey the law"?
There's plenty of evidence in the public record that government entities and red light camera vendors have conspired to improperly (and intentionally) adjust traffic light and camera timings in order to falsely charge motorists with traffic violations and thereby defraud the public... Who will watch the watchers?
I share your sentiments, but this is about making money first and foremost.
And also fine them for flying through space without proper insurance...
They also have plastic plate covers that are polarized that can block your tag number.
I don’t have a problem with ticketing people for either offense. (Unless you live somewhere that it’s a criminal violation instead of a civil one. In that case, can you be sure the person charged is the one actually driving?) I have yet to see the government not use technology to expand it’s powers and encroach on our personal liberties.
Those cameras freak me out. I was at an intersection today with, I counted them, sixteen (16) of them at different heights.
“It is the law in most states that you must have liability insurance on your car. If you are stopped for a traffic violation a cop will ask for your insurance information and if you lack insurance you will be subject to penalty. If you are caught breaking the law in public why should you not be prosecuted for it?”
This is wrong on so many levels. First, you are not being stopped for any violation by anyone. You are being scanned by a traffic camera for merely passing by an unmanned government checkpoint. Further, I’m intimately familiar with Ohio’s messed up record keeping. I’ve had my drivers license suspended without my knowledge for two years because of failing to reply to “proof of insurance” letters that were sent to an old address 50 feet from where I moved to. That required three days of missing work to stand in line at three different agencies to prove they made a mistake. I’ve had to prove to my own insurance company that I had a valid drivers license just this year because their records search was incorrect. Finally, I’m not going to put up with another government intrusion into my privacy, nor allow them to enact another scheme extract more wealth from myself or fellow taxpayers. The whole idea that government is all powerful and owns us is abhorrent.
NOW you’re talkin’... Yeah, if we’re gonna have a Brave New World, let’s get on with it!!
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