FRAUDULENT car tags leads to insurance coverage problems

A follow-up to a story you first saw on the News on Six. As many as 3,000 people bought fraudulent car tags through a woman who police say bought tags illegally then sold them in Tulsa's Hispanic

Friday, August 31st 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

A follow-up to a story you first saw on the News on Six. As many as 3,000 people bought fraudulent car tags through a woman who police say bought tags illegally then sold them in Tulsa's Hispanic community.

The car tags begin with the letters "TQ" and many of the buyers were Mexican immigrants. A Coweta woman was hit by a car that carried one such tag, the driver had no license and no insurance. She was injured, and stuck with a huge repair bill. Accident victim, Laurine Mercer, "and when he hit me, he went all the way down the side of my truck, ripped the rear end out, bent the bumper and these are pretty stout bumpers on this truck."

Mercer didn't have uninsured motorist coverage and the repairs costs $10,000. This is a problem that could affect any of us; one insurance company says 17% of Oklahoma drivers have no insurance.