Driving without car insurance? Soon, they'll lock you up and throw away the key!

Summary: In sunny California, the winds are shifting, and if you are one of the 3 million motorists driving without car insurance, you'd better get ready to get thrown in an 8 by 11 cell and the key thrown down a well.

See, a couple months back a young married woman ran a red light (accidentally) and smashed into my car. Astonishingly enough, she had 2 weeping children by her side with no driver's license. As she frantically scrambled for her phone to call her husband, he arrived shortly with the insurance information scribbled on a crumpled piece of scratch paper. Being the nice guy that I am, I wrote down the information and then reluctantly reported the incident to my insurance company. My insurance agent rang back within a couple of hours, and guess what I hear next? The information that this nice young woman gave me was totally bogus! The woman who totaled my car was did not have car insurance. What! I couldn't believe this. I was had! All of us hard working, law abiding, car insurance paying citizens fork over hundreds of dollars a month in order to comply with our mandatory car insurance laws. It seems like we are paying the bills to push back our dismay at spending large sums on something we cannot immediately see, touch, smell, or hear. Soon enough everybody will be forced to acquire car insurance. California legislators are now debuting a three-phase plan focused on uninsured motorists. California legislators are creating this plan for people like me, for people that do pay insurance, for people that don't make bogus claims, for people that are law abiding citizens like you and me. This plan will be enforced with the sole intent on making uninsured motorists pay the ultimate price. Get ready uninsured motorists, here comes the bad news! As of January 1st, insurance agencies are required to electronically submit evidence of financial responsibility to the DMV. This means, if your car insurance faults at any time, the DMV will be notified immediately. What does this mean for uninsured motorists? The DMV will send you a nasty little note along with your registration renewal notice requesting that you submit proof of financial responsibility before they will ever renew your registration again. This is a must people. There is no getting around this one. Alright people, let's do the simple math here. If you get pulled over on or after July 1 of this year, do you really think that the excuse that you left your car insurance card in your house really going to fly with the authorities? Come on. These are the fat kids in high school who you used to pick on. It's payback time in their eyes. As of right now, law enforcement has the same access to the current status of your insurance just like the DMV. Don't fret, because I have good news for everybody. Read on. The final cut throat will come on October 6th as when the California DMV will be required to suspend the registrations of uninsured motorists. Wait, what does that mean? That means there is no getting around it. It means there is no where to go. It's your dead end buddy. Insurance is a must. Now, I'm a nice guy. I'm a very understanding person. I'm willing to look at both sides of the fence here. Given, some people just outright choose to not have car insurance; however there are the few out there that simply cannot afford the sky-high car insurance premiums that are simply out of budget and quite frankly out of reach for some motorists. No worries, the state of California has the bases covered for most. See, as of April 1, the California Low Cost Auto Insurance Program is being offered to low-income drivers in Alameda, Fresno, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego Counties, previously only available in San Francisco and Los Angeles. This low cost insurance is available from any licensed insurance agent at a cost of just over $300 per year. Lower-income drivers who meet the qualifying guidelines will be able to protect themselves and their families while complying with the law. More information about the program is available at the state department of insurance website. If you drive into Los Angeles County today, look around you, because it is estimated that one out of four people on the road are driving without car insurance. When the new laws kick in, sorry Charlie, but you must get car insurance, and you must get car insurance right now.