CRACKDOWN WORKS; RATES FALL AS MORE DRIVERS GET INSURED.

Byline: Beth Barrett Daily News Staff Writer

The percentage of uninsured motorists involved in crashes has plunged by more than half in California under a 16-month crackdown, Department of Motor Vehicle records showed Monday.

In 1996, before laws were toughened, 24.1 percent of all drivers in crashes reported to the DMV were uninsured motorists. For the first five months of this year, 11.2 percent of drivers in crashes involved the uninsured.

The drop has meant a boon to drivers: car insurance rates have dipped 5.5 percent while rates nationally are rising.

``There is a reduction in the uninsured, more people are buying policies, and they are buying them in high uninsured areas. There are fewer lawsuits involving uninsured motorists,'' said Insurance Commissioner Charles Quackenbush.

``A lot of people don't think it's worth going around bare. So they're purchasing. I wouldn't declare victory yet, but we're winning.''

According to consumer activists, motorists should be getting even lower rates as a result of the crackdown's success.

``This is only good if there is a reward for the consumer and rates start coming down,'' said Philip Roberto, research director for the Santa Monica-based Proposition 103 Enforcement Project. ``They haven't come down fast enough.''

The decrease in uninsured motorists follows a 1997 requirement that owners produce proof of insurance to register a vehicle; tougher fines and penalties for not carrying the minimum liability insurance - starting at $500 for a first offense and climbing steeply - and Proposition 213's denial of non-economic damage settlements to uninsured motorists.

However, officials said a new industry in counterfeit proofs of insurance is flourishing and legislation is needed to criminalize such activity.

In Los Angeles County, long the state's biggest trouble spot, 1.2 million automobile insurance policies have been bought since 1995, though there are 780,000 fewer automobiles registered in the county today than there were then.

In 1995, the county's uninsured rate stood at just over 41 percent, and 2.2 million vehicles were being driven without insurance.

Statewide, total automobile insurance sales have jumped from 17.1 million in 1996 to 19 million.

The pressure to insure vehicles also has meant that more than 550,000 car owners statewide declared their cars non-operational between April 1996 and April 1997 rather than insure and register them. Instead, they paid the DMV a $10 fee.

In addition, about 570,000 vehicles statewide have disappeared from the registration rolls and did not reappear as non-operational vehicles.

In Los Angeles County, there were 293,285 fewer cars and 27,355 fewer motorcycles registered in 1997 than 1996, records show. The number of non-operational registrations was not broken out.

Most of the cars that vanished from the registration roles were smaller, less expensive models, said DMV spokesman Evan Nossoff. The cars could have been driven out of state, junked or kept and driven illegally.

``It's very hard for us to tell where cars go when they aren't registered,'' Nossoff said.

DMV investigators and insurance officials believe a growing number of cars might now be being driven by people who have phony insurance documentation.

``We're finding a very, very high number of people getting fraudulent insurance cards and policies. We've created a new market for fraud documents,'' said Randy Vera, DMV senior special investigator.

A recent stakeout at the Inglewood and Hawthorne DMV offices netted about 50 people with fake insurance cards trying to renew their vehicle registrations.

The DMV is pushing for legislation that would make forging insurance cards a misdemeanor. It already is a misdemeanor to give false information to the DMV.