Drivers in Ohio say the state keeps checking the same people for proof of coverage, while the state’s insurance body insists the checks are random.
Car insurance is mandatory in Ohio and the state’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) sends letters to thousands of car owners to demand they provide evidence of coverage.
The problem, drivers allege, is that the same people keep getting these letters while other drivers who may or may not have the mandatory insurance aren’t made to supply proof.
Lawrence Dunlevy told an NBC affiliate in Dayton, WDTN, that his car is eight-years-old and in eight years he’s been selected three times to prove he has car insurance.
“It just seems to be out of the eight million drivers in the state of Ohio we now know that Lawrence Dunlevy has insurance so maybe we should move on and start looking at other people that may or may not have insurance,” Dunlevy said.
The BMV said drivers aren’t being picked-on and its selection process goes through a mathematical sequence randomly picking out drivers from a poll of 10,000 at a time.
The BMV doesn’t make the selections, contracting out a third-party vendor instead.
Drivers who have been selected to provide proof aren’t supposed to receive those letters again - the system is meant to skip over them when it selects 5,400 drivers out of the pool of 10,000.
Almost all, 96%, of drivers send in their proof of insurance by the deadline, the BMV said.
The remaining 4% are suspended.
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