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by John_Deutzman from New York City

Last Post 8 days, 3 hours Ago


Cursing School Bus Driver Pt 2
Feb 6, 2008 | 5:07 PM
Category: Traffic
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   The story speaks for itself about all of the potential risks that parents are taking with renegade bus operations but it also points out the improper use of out of state plates which is a common practice in NYC to avoid high insurance rates.
 
   Here are the rules as I understand them:
 
1) The vehicle and traffic law requires that you register your car within 30 days of moving to your new address. Your car needs to be registered to the place that it's routinely "garaged" For example, It's ok to have a car registered at your summer house in the Poconos if that's where your car stays most of the time.  If you really live in Brooklyn and your car stays with you most of the time in Brooklyn then you are cheating on your insurance company if it is registered in the Poconos.  It's called rate evasion and at the very least you could get in big trouble with your insurance company for lying to them. You could also wind up with a citation from the cops if they think you are cheating.
 
2) In New York, if a business is caught intentionally registering vehicles out of the area to avoid higher insurance rates the business can be charged with commercial rate evasion, which is a crime.
 
3)If you get caught by the state where the car is fraudulently registered to,,you can be in big trouble with them too.
 
Insurance rates are based on the risk of you getting into an accident  that's why the same car my cost 6k or more a year to insure in Brooklyn than in the Poconos.  It's like fixing a horse race. You are messing with the odds and the payout and everyone gets screwed.
 
It also presents a huge problem for cops trying to track down criminals.  Let's say a terrorist is seen taking off in a car after he plants a bomb.  The plates go back to some phony address or some.
 
John
 
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Member Comments Total Comments: 3
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jmax123 read my blog view my photos
Feb 6, 2008 | 10:51 PM

Hey John,

You may have saved a kids life, seeing the way this driver carelessly goes through red lights.

Hopefully the school districts are aware of this problem now, and will help the parents arrange for safer transportation for these kids. Or am I being too optimistic?

Will he have to pay retroactive premium differences to the auto insurance company, now that he is caught in action?

If he ever did crash, how would he explain the parents' lawsuits to his non-commercial insurance company? And our premiums would go up to absorb the loss to the insurance company.

Jane
John_Deutzman read my blog
Feb 6, 2008 | 10:59 PM

Jane,

Thanks for the comments. He either has to shut down or go legit which would require NY plates, NY DOT school bus certfication and NY DMV school bus driver certification.
No matter what he does with his service, he still is facing the criminal charges in Pennsylvania and also DOT fines and penalties in NY.
ANGELRUBY read my blog view my photos
Feb 8, 2008 | 10:48 AM

John, John, John - I send you a big hug. You have followed through with this report and have opened a big can of worms that will help many.

I find it amazing that these parents didn't check out these companies/drivers who were in charge of very precious cargo. Parents who didn't follow through to check out the safety of their children. They should be so grateful to you - and more parents in the future because of what your report, follow through, is creating.

Bless you, bless you, bless you. Aili
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John_Deutzman

John Deutzman, a New York native, has been working as a reporter at Fox 5 News since September of 2001. John has won 12 career Emmys and has received 28 Emmy nominations. He's known for his aggressive and at times humorous style when catching bad guys and exposing scams for the Fox 5 Investigative Unit. John's stories have resulted in arrests, businesses being shut down and dozens victims getting their money back from scam artists. Before moving back to New York, John spent 11 years in Miami, first as a sports reporter but when hurricane Andrew struck, John was thrown into news reporting and evenutally made the full time switch to news. John also had stints in Binghamton,New York and Springfield,Massachusetts
. A native of Smithtown,Long Island, John is an 11th-generation Long Islander. He describes himself as a 50/50 mix of his two grandfathers. One grandfather was a journalist who owned the town paper, the "Smithtown Messenger" and the other was one of the first cops in town who had a reputation for being tough and crazy but fair.

Member Since: 6/1/2006