Meredith Farver glanced in her rear-view mirror as she waited to make a left turn off S.R. 15.
The Elkhart resident saw the car behind her approaching quickly, then suddenly trying to slow. But on that icy December morning, Farver knew it was a lost cause.
She and her 3-year-old daughter braced for the collision.
It was what happened next, though, that hit Farver hardest.
Police cited the second motorist, a Hispanic woman, for having no Indiana driver's license. A few days later, a police report on the crash showed the woman carried no auto insurance.
"I don't know why she didn't go to jail right then and there. Everybody needs to have a license to drive a car," Farver said of the initial determination that the second driver was unlicensed.
"The police told me that's for the court to decide."
In fact, police departments, state agencies and others are exploring how to address the issue of unlicensed and uninsured motorists, a group whose rising numbers may be fueled by an influx of undocumented immigrants.
But some observers are hesitant to blame the problem strictly on newcomers.
This week, the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles will void the licenses of improperly documented residents whose information on file with that department does not mesh with Social Security databases.
The result could be a mixed bag, experts say.
On the one hand, the change would deny licenses to people who have not cleared the training, exams and residency status necessary to obtain driving privileges.
On the other, many people's everyday routines require them to drive, and they will continue to do so -- licensed or not. And without a license, they will not be able to buy vehicle insurance.
Capt. Sean Holmes of the Elkhart County Sheriff's Department suspects the quandary extends beyond the immigrant Hispanic community.
"It's more of an economic issue than a question of whether someone is here legally or not," he said.
"A lot of circumstances dictate what you can and cannot afford to have in your life, and a lot of people choose to go without insurance. Or they get hit with circumstances that prevent them from obtaining a license, but they drive because they still need to go to work."
Between Jan. 1, 2007, and last Wednesday, Elkhart County police cited 378 motorists for driving without ever having obtained a license. The Class C misdemeanor carries up to a 60-day sentence and $500 fine.
Driving without insurance is punishable with loss of license or vehicle registration, in addition to legal action by injured parties. The local number of citations for that offense were not immediately available last week.
Interestingly, Indiana law does not explicitly call for drivers to carry auto liability insurance, said John Kissling, chief deputy commissioner of the state Department of Insurance. Rather, it demands that drivers demonstrate "financial responsibility," or sufficient assets to pay claims if they cause traffic crashes.
"I suppose if you're Bill Gates, that means you can just take out your checkbook and pay for damages," Kissling said. "But for 99 percent of us, financial responsibility means carrying insurance."
Minimum liability limits in Indiana include coverage up to $50,000 for all people injured in a crash, subject to a limit of $25,000 for any one individual, and $10,000 coverage for property damage.
Many insurance policies also include coverage of damages caused by uninsured motorists, though Kissling said that is not mandated.
Farver, the Elkhart mother, said the uninsured driver who hit her sport utility vehicle caused a world of inconvenience in addition to damages of $4,000 that Farver's insurance company paid.
No one was injured in the crash, though Farver and her daughter went to the hospital just to be sure. The girl missed pre-school the day of the crash, and Farver had to use a loaner car for a couple of weeks while her SUV was being repaired.
"I don't know what I could have done differently to avoid all of this," she said. "I'm the one who followed the laws and did everything legally, and now it's going to be my insurance premiums that go up."
The average insured driver pays about $50 a year for coverage protecting them from uninsured motorists, Kissling said. Crashes involving uninsured motorists likely drive up the costs only of that area of coverage and not the policy at large, he said.
"Perhaps there's a bigger cost to society," Kissling said. "It certainly puts people in a very anguishing situation of possibly not knowing how damages will be paid. And if you get two drivers who are uninsured, we pay the social costs for their visit to the emergency room."
In crashes that cause injuries, the chances are one in seven that the at-fault driver is uninsured, according to a study last year by the nonprofit Insurance Research Council.
Holmes, the sheriff's department captain, said police face any number of challenges trying to determine whether drivers have valid licenses and insurance.
For example, an officer on a traffic stop often cannot determine on site whether an out-of-state license is valid or if an insurance policy has lapsed. Maybe a delay in the processing of immigration documents has kept a driver from establishing residency in Indiana and thus obtaining an in-state license.
"There's all kinds of reasons why people driving on Indiana highways don't have a license," Holmes said.
But Holmes encourages drivers to let police know if insurance companies, lawyers or other advocates find out that their cases involve uninsured motorists. In many instances, police will issue citations retroactively.
"If drivers learn there's a problem, we need to know about it," Holmes said. "We've been making sure the officers know what needs to be done."