SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO) — This might be a good time for you to check your glove box for your insurance card. This week, we showed you two serious crashes in Sioux Falls involving drivers who were ticketed for not having proof of insurance. No insurance is one of the most common violations police encounter every day, and one they take very seriously.

Sioux Falls police ticketed the driver involved in this car-pedestrian crash on Monday for not having proof of insurance. But it’s far from an isolated case. Police issued more than 3,300 tickets to drivers who couldn’t produce their insurance cards, last year alone.

“We do know that in a lot of crashes, it’s pretty common for people to not have insurance for whatever reason,” Sam Clemens with the Sioux Falls Police Department said.

Officer Chad Gillen says most of the people he pulls over, don’t have an insurance card with them.

“A lot of people times, it’s sitting in the envelope, on the counter, at home. They forget to put it in their vehicle,” Gillen said.

Gillen himself has felt the financial impact of a driver who wasn’t insured.

“A lady hit me in my personal vehicle and she had no insurance and then, 3-months later, she hit somebody else and she didn’t have any insurance. My recourse was to take that person to small-claims court. But I knew it would be fruitless to do so because I knew that person didn’t have a job,” Gillen said.

Drivers who get ticketed for no proof of insurance do have legal recourse. They can show their insurance card to the clerk of courts prior to their court date, but that card has to have been valid at the time they were pulled over in the first place.

“If the proof of insurance is clear that they were covered, on the date of the ticket, the clerks will assist them in disposing of that ticket right there,” Minnehaha County Deputy State’s Attorney Meghan McCauley said.

Many drivers mistakenly think police can simply do a background check at the scene to determine if a driver is insured. But law enforcement does not have access to the records of private insurance companies.

Not having proof of insurance is a class-two misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of 30-days in jail and a $500 fine. Violators will also have their driver license suspended, which makes it that much more difficult for them to purchase car insurance in the future.