End Of Grace Period Looms For Uninsured Oklahoma Drivers

The number of uninsured drivers in Oklahoma has gone down a lot in the past few years, but it is still a big problem for police and people who do have insurance. 

The UVED program uses cameras to identify drivers who don't have insurance, and those drivers get a ticket. 

Now, the grace period for those drivers is about to end.

Oklahoma used to be the number one state in the country for uninsured drivers, but things are improving.

“The problem has decreased a little bit," said Officer Craig Heatherly. "We are running into fewer people uninsured.”

Tulsa police officer Craig Heatherly said he still sees hundreds of crashes involving drivers who don't have insurance.

That’s a headache for the people who do pay for insurance and increases rates for everyone.

“TPD issued about 5600 citations last year for no insurance," he said.

That’s why the UVED, or Uninsured Vehicle Enforcement Division, started back in 2018 when Oklahoma’s uninsured driver numbers were the highest.

Amanda Arnall Couch runs that program and says the state has installed cameras to track uninsured drivers to send them a ticket in the mail and help them get insured by enrolling them in a program.

“With the payment of the fee, we divert the case, we don't send it to prosecution. We enroll you in the program and keep an eye on you for two years," she said.

The program has seen great success, with the number of uninsured drivers going from 315,000 to 185,000, a 40 percent decrease.

But many drivers are still uninsured.

So Amanda said UVED will be reviewing the names of people who enrolled in the program, got insurance, and were caught again on cameras without insurance, and this time around, they could be prosecuted.

“Those are the folks we’ll be sending to DAs for prosecution," she said.

Officer Heatherly said the fewer uninsured drivers, the better.

“It’s frustrating for us, it's frustrating for different motorists that are doing the right thing," said Ofc. Heatherly.

UVED said if you have received a notice from them, you need to contact them as soon as possible since they'll be sending names to prosecutors starting January 31st.

Tulsa County DA Steve Kunzweiler said: 

“This program is an excellent example of cooperation at multiple levels to tackle a chronic problem which has plagued innocent people. Oklahoma’s legislators saw the need for action to combat uninsured driving, and private industry provided a proven system to address it. We want our roads to be safe to travel upon, and making sure that everyone is insured on those roadways is just common sense.”