State insurance database goes for a test run Friday

ATLANTA - A statewide database that eliminates the need to carry an insurance card will have a test run Friday after many months and thousands of dollars worth of delays. <br> <br> ``The insurance agencies are giving us some data, and we&#39;ll be testing it,&#39;&#39; said Susan Sports, a spokeswoman from the Georgia Department of Motor Vehicle Safety. <br> <br> The test run will help the department identify and correct possible glitches with the system and its software before it is launched statewide on Feb. 1, 2003. <br> <br> Earlier this year, the Legislature gave the DMVS an extended deadline to get the insurance database up and running. <br> <br> Passed in 1998, the law would require motorists to have not only an insurance card but written documentation from their insurer that would go into a database, allowing authorities to quickly verify coverage. <br> <br> Lawmakers had initially given the Department of Public Safety and the former GeorgiaNet Authority 16 months to get the database online and working. But by January of last year, after months of work with little chance of meeting the Sept. 1, 2001 deadline, public safety officials asked legislators for four additional months to complete the project. <br> <br> One extension, 20 months and thousands of dollars later, the database still wasn&#39;t close to being ready. <br> <br> The project was passed to the DMVS last summer. Officials there said they would need another eight- to 10-months before the system would be ready. The DMVS asked the Legislature for another extension. <br> <br> DMVS Commissioner Tim Burgess told lawmakers that if the state wanted a database that quick, it would likely come with errors. The Legislature approved another extension. <br> <br> Friday&#39;s test run will determine how much work is still needed to run the comprehensive database. <br> <br> According to the Insurance Research Council&#39;s Web site, about 13 percent of motorists in Georgia are uninsured. The national average is 14 percent. <br> <br> Information about the new system will be mailed to motorists around mid-December, Sports said. Training workshops will be provided to police before the system&#39;s implementation.