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Governor signs mandatory car insurance bill
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Posted on Feb 03 1999
Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio has signed a bill into law seeking mandatory car insurance in yet another bid to put dilapidated vehicles off the road and provide financial responsibility for motorists to compensate victims and damaged property.
Called the Mandatory Liability Auto Insurance Act, the measure compels owners and operators of a motor vehicle, including government cars, to have a minimum level of liability insurance before they are allowed to drive on the streets of the commonwealth.
“Often, innocent victims of motor vehicle accidents are burdened with damages that are never paid if an uninsured motorist is the cause of the accident,” the governor said in his transmittal letter to the Legislature after signing it as Public Law 11-55.
“This bill will ensure that those who avail themselves of the privilege of operating a motor vehicle on the public roads of the Commonwealth have the minimum level of liability insurance as a condition of such privilege,” he said.
Under the law, any person who recklessly causes a vehicular accident shall bear the cost of the damages by way of liability insurance. A motorist who is uninsured, however, will have to pay for the damages.
But the law also provides that “if the uninsured perpetrator who caused such accident was unlawfully denied liability insurance by an insurance provider, then that insurance provider shall be liable for such damages up to the amount that would have been covered by the minimum liability insurance required.”
It also says that no motor vehicle will be allowed to register unless it is insured of minimum motor vehicle liability insurance.
Violators of the laws face civil fines ranging from $100 to $500 plus possible revocation of driver’s license.
