Government Affairs Update

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS CORNER

Out of State Violations Become a Major Issue

Out of state driving violations have become a share this information electronically. Legislation Threatens Personal Auto Market Stability major issue ever since the June crash in New Hampshire that killed seven motorcyclists caused by a driver who should not The Globe article reported that the American Association of Motor have had a valid Massachusetts driver’s license. Recently an Vehicle Administrators does have a agency customer of mine who is a RI resident was surcharged database that allows states to share on their RI auto policy for a speeding ticket that occurred in information electronically however Massachusetts. Violations from Massachusetts have never it appears that most states don’t shown up on Rhode Island motor vehicle reports in the past. subscribe to this service or their An inquiry to the RI Division of Motor Vehicles has indicated AAMVA database. that recently Massachusetts began notifying RI about violations in Massachusetts for RI licensed drivers. The The result of this sporadic cross Anchor has not been able to find out exactly which other border data sharing will be that states report violations to the RI DMV, but we did find out the more drivers will be seeing some RI DMV has been “receiving violations and suspensions from large surcharges on their auto a number of jurisdictions over the years”. Reporting violations policies because of out of state to the licensing state of the driver is a decision made by the violations that are now going to state where the violation occurred. be on record. The good news is The Boston Globe reported in an October 4th article that the records will still maintain the best RI DMV was sending the Massachusetts Registry of Motor rates available. Vehicles 22,500 notices of violations for Massachusetts licensed drivers. These notices are paper notices which have to be processed manually by the sending state and the receiving state. The Globe also reported that New Hampshire recently sent 8,000 notices to the Massachusetts RMV regarding Massachusetts drivers who had violations in New Hampshire. The Registrar of the Massachusetts RMV lost his job this summer after an audit showed the Massachusetts RMV had not processed tens of thousands of notifications from other states about Massachusetts licensed drivers, including the driver that killed the seven people. That driver’s record included violations so severe it should have prevented him from having a license in Massachusetts. Since that time over 6,000 Massachusetts drivers have had their license suspended as the RMV processed the backlog of notifications of serious violations and suspensions from other states.

Drivers who hold a Commercial Drivers License (CDL) are part of a national data base that tracks their driving records. For regular drivers the states generally do not have computer systems that are compatible which would enable them to systems aren’t compatible with the that drivers with truly clean driving