TUESDAY: Police in City of Tonawanda find more people than you think have no license, registration or insurance (7:18 p.m.)
By Dan Miner/minerd@gnnewspaper.com Greater Niagara Newspapers
Crashing into a telephone pole at 45 mph with veins laced with alcohol is one way to lose one’s drivers license.
But the myriad of ways drivers let their licenses slip through their fingers also includes mundate late insurance payments and negelcting to pay parking tickets. Such offenses clog small police departments like the City of Tonawandas, said Lt. Fred Foels.
The number of tickets written for drivers caught with a suspended license, unregistered vehicle and no insurance pile up like Sabres victories —
“No one would want to be in an accident with someone who doesn’t have insurance on a vehicle,” said Lt. , of the city police department. “It’s scary, the number we see now.”
So far this year, the city has written 52 tickets for driving without a license, 16 tickets for driving with a suspended registration and 20 tickets for driving without insurance.
“For us, it’s time-consuming,” Foels said. “Most of the time, (an officer has) to bring the person back, book them, and in some cases, if it’s a 511 (unlicensed driver) there’s bail required.”
According to David Noto of Kenmore-based Noto Insurance Agency, a collision with an uninsured driver is a major inconvenience.
A New York state law requires all car insurance policies to include coverage of accidents with uninsured or underinsured drivers, Noto said. But that means making a claim against your own insurance policy, which could in some cases raise your rates or, if you have claims already against your policy, get you dropped from an insurance company.
For the full edition of this story, read Wednesday's edition of the Tonawanda News.
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