HOW TO LOWER AUTO INSURANCE COSTS IN LOUISIANA!

Monday, July 15^th, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 HOW TO LOWER AUTO INSURANCE COSTS IN LOUISIANA!

 Louisiana legislators met last week to find legal solutions that will lower the cost of automobile bill insurance throughout the state. Hey, all you guy and gal lawmakers. There are no new laws that will make any difference. If you want to see automobile rates go down for the average policyholder, get law-enforcement to start enforcing the laws that are on the books right now. Let me give you some examples.

It’s hard to get an exact figure, but estimates are that as many as 20% of all Louisiana drivers are uninsured. That means that those of us who follow the law must pay a much higher premium in case you are hit by an unsured motorist. When was the last time you heard of some driver being cited for not having insurance? Here’s what happens. Thousands of drivers initially buy insurance and finance it, then the minute they get their proof of insurance card, they cancel and quit paying the monthly payments. So drivers driving legally gets stuck with higher premiums.

The Bayou State has way too many drunk drivers on the highways.  We regularly read in the press that someone has been stopped for their fifth, sixth or even seventh DWI.  Why do Louisiana judges allow this? The law states firmly that if a driver is convicted for a third offense DWI, their car should be seized and sold. It’s the law, but it’s not enforced. Why not?

Drunk drivers who kill someone often get only a minor jail term or even probation. What happens in other states? A Long Island, New York jury recently convicted a drunk driver of murder for killing two people in a head-on collision. The district attorney who brought the charges had been elected on a “take no prisoners” approach to drunk drivers.

Was this too tough a penalty? Not according to the mother of one of the female victims. She used no euphemisms in describing the damage done. “As I crawled out of the car, the only thing that was left of Kate was her head. This was murder and no different from carrying a loaded gun around, pointing it at people and having a few shots go off killing them.” The prosecutor made no bones about how she will act in dealing with drunk driving deaths. “We hope that this verdict sends a message that if you drink and drive and kill somebody, you will be prosecuted for murder.”

More than 20% of all drivers in Louisiana lie on the application for insurance according to a study by NerdWallet.com.  So when Insurance applicants give false information about where they live or the number of drivers in their household, failing to add a teenage driver to their policy, or not disclosing any pre-existing issues with their vehicle, such drivers get away with receiving a cheaper rate, which means you and I pay more.

Louisiana has some of the worst drivers in America according to CarInsuranceComparison.com. A large number of drivers do not obey the traffic laws, fail to turn on their lights when it rains, do not wear seatbelts, regularly go beyond the legal speed limit, drive recklessly, and don’t even maintain a valid driver’s license.

Law enforcement officers, particularly the Louisiana state police, say they are stretched to the limit and do not have the manpower to travel the highways and cite lawbreakers.  So the governor can spend millions of dollars sending Louisiana guardsmen to patrol the Texas–Mexican border. But the state is not capable of patrolling its own highways to get automobile law breakers off the road.

The bottom line is this. We don’t need any new laws. The state just needs to enforce the laws that are on the books. If legislators want to lower the cost of auto insurance for the average safe driver, they should cut some of the fat and pork projects from the state budget and appropriate money for more police officers on our highways.

Aggressive highway enforcement of state laws will cause a significant drop in the cost of auto insurance for those drivers who obey the law. If there’s a will, there’s a way to get this done.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.