Rhode Island Database Verifies Car Insurance coverage of Drivers

What you require to know:

• Rhode Island will track uninsured drivers by way of a database called the Rhode Island Insurance Verification Program (RIIIVS).


• Uninsured drivers ought to get coverage now or they could have their license cancelled when the database is totally functional.


• Drivers with insurance coverage should check on-line to confirm that the DMV has their right address. Address-connected errors could imply a driver with coverage gets mistakenly flagged as a driver with no coverage.

Rhode Island is a step closer to kicking off an automated program to determine uninsured drivers in the state.

Final year, lawmakers there passed a law to produce the Rhode Island Insurance Verification Program (RIIIVS). The law went into effect this month, and insurers throughout the state are submitting drivers’ policy details.

The database will use that policy data and a number of other pieces of driving info offered by the Division of Motor Cars (DMV), like partial VINs to dates of birth, to “find matches of insurance coverage policies to vehicles,” according to Anthony Silva, administrator for the DMV.

Appropriate Address Info is Crucial

Unmatched driver info in RIIIVS will imply that driver gets notified that they’re lacking coverage.

According to the law passed final year, the notification approach is:

• If the database finds a automobile owner has been lacking coverage for at least 3 months, he or she will get a 1st notice.


• That notice will inform the vehicle owner he or she has 15 days to supply proof of coverage.


• A second notice follows if no proof of coverage is offered, allowing an additional 15 days to provide proof of coverage.


• If proof of coverage still hasn’t been offered, the DMV cancels the automobile owner’s license and registration.


• To reinstate a license and registration, a driver has to give proof of coverage and spend a $ 250 charge (extra fines and penalties could apply).

Given that matching is so essential to RIIIVS, “it’s essential that [the DMV] has your correct address on file as notices go to the address on record,” according to Debbie Rich, a public info officer with the DMV.

Rhode Island drivers can request an address modify with the DMV online.

Insurers Have November Deadline to Routinely Submit Policy Info

In a bulletin, state insurance regulators laid out what car insurers in Rhode Island have to do to register with the technique and submit policy info about drivers they cover.

The law that produced RIIIVS went into effect on July 1, but full-on use of the database will not begin until later so that “insurance firms [have] enough time to comply with the law.” According to the bulletin, insurers want to start off submitting policy details frequently by November.

The Ocean State has 1 of the highest statewide rates of uninsured drivers in the U.S., with far more than 17.5 percent of drivers there lacking Rhode Island automobile insurance, according to the Insurance coverage Research Council (IRC).

“The ultimate end result must be fewer uninsured motorists and that must translate into policy savings for all the other motorists on the road who are abiding by the mandatory auto insurance coverage law,” Rep. Brian Kennedy (D-Hopkinton) said in a statement issued right after the legislation he sponsored was signed into law.

Rhode Island Database Verifies Car Insurance coverage of Drivers