The Nevada DMV has implemented a new policy for verifying mandatory insurance laws upon registering your vehicle effective March 15, 2010.  One of the purposes of the “Nevada LIVE”(http://blog.drivinglaws.org/2010/01/29/nevada-insurance-cards-now-required-at-the-dmv/)  program is to reduce the amount of uninsured motorists in Nevada.  



Up until the time this program was implemented insurance companies would confirm insurance on any registered vehicle via back up tape that could take up to a month to get final confirmation.  One of the results of this older system is a constant flow of information that was not accurate or up to date.  A person could register their vehicle but never run into problems for months down the line!  Under the new system all information will be verified in real time with online access to insurance company data bases.  You will be required to provide your insurance card as proof when renewing and that information is then cross checked in real time to speed up the process and hopefully lower the ratio of uninsured motorists.

Nevada ranks in the top ten states with the highest ratio of uninsured motorists driving the streets daily.  Although Nevada requires minimum liability limits of $15,000 per person and $30,000 per accident it is estimated that roughly 15% of Nevada drivers still do not carry even this state required minimum.  This affects all of the responsible people that do carry the required insurance by having to pay for accidents that are not their fault.



I personally have experience with this coverage on my personal auto policy.  I was hit by a driver that openly acknowledged he ran a stop sign and hit me doing roughly 15 miles an hour.  The police were called and he was ticketed.  Upon calling the agent listed on the ID card he provided I was told that coverage was never started, only quoted.  This left me responsible to take care of damages to my own Expedition that was deemed a total loss by my insurance company as well as my medical bills.  Luckily my uninsured motorist coverage paid all losses but it also leaves a blemish of over $12,000 on MY auto policy for any future insurance company to see when I get premium quotes.

Without uninsured motorist coverage I would have been responsible for paying damages to my vehicle out of my own pocket.  My health insurance would have paid for any medical expenses and then require to be reimbursed if anything is collected from the other party.