On Wednesday, the House voted a new law that's going to send uninsured drivers involved in crashes to prison, the Pantagraph reported. Now the law has been passed to the Senate for debate and in case it is approved, American drivers won't afford the luxury to travel without having a car insurance. Those who want to take the risk and have the hard luck to be involved in an accident, they might face an up to 364-days in jail sentence.
For the moment, uninsured drivers should pay $500 minimum fine provided that they are part of a car accident.
The legislation called the Michael Dean Law was initiated by State Republican John Bradley, D-Marion, who has mixed some personal feelings in the project. It was named after one of Bradley's friends who was killed by an insured driver.
Michael Dean, who was 25 years old, was a Johnston City native and a Southern Illinois University graduate. Dean was a radio sports personality, broadcasting Marion Wildcats and Johnston City Indians football and basketball on WGGH.
“I have a mixed feeling about this because I think about the loss,” Bradley said.
Certainly, the story is sad and dramatic but we can not stop wondering whether it is fair to support a law because of personal reasons. Normally, lawmakers should care about the population's interest first and shouldn't generalize after a personal case. As far as we're concerned, the lawmaker took the matter a little bit too personal.
Let's face it, insured or not, a driver causing a fatal crash won't bring the victims to life again. What about the cases when the driver is not guilty of the fatal crash? We all know that many accidents could happen because of other road users' fault so is it fair to send an uninsured driver to jail just because he had the tough luck to be involved in a crash he is not guilty of?
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