Tracking Uninsured Drivers

Last night we highlighted the cost of uninsured drivers in Texas.  The state estimates 20% of drivers have no insurance.  It costs Texans $1 Billion in extra insurance premiums.

The City of Pasadena is towing cars found without insurance.  Since February 493 cars - 81 a month.  Dallas will start doing it in January.

You need to prove you have insurance to buy and register a car in Texas.  So what happens most often in these cases is that people buy a 6 month policy, quit paying after the first month, and keep the (invalid) card for another 6 months. 

The state is out to stop that.  DPS is testing a program in Austin right now and hopes to roll it out statewide this fall.  It's a database of all insurance policies in the state - and when a policy is cancelled insurance companies promise to tell the state.  The state will make that database available to officers in their car computers.  The program, TexasSure has been delayed numerous times in the past, but seems to be on track now.

We didn't include it in the TV piece, because DPS decided not to allow access to videotape the system in action.  They say the test will be over in early August.

Comments

[E. Thomas Anderson]

What can we,as citizens,do to get the City of Houston to start a program like this?

[ROCHELLE]

If insurance was more affordable maybe more people would have it.

[KATHYLUE]

A drunk with NO insurance hit my truck as I was stopped at a red light a couple years ago. He had an insurnce card that I later found out was no good. Progressive told me was insured when I called them at the scene, three days later, Progressive said after an investigation that "Ogar" was NOT insured. He was driving a vehicle from an auto auction. Police never showed up... Ogar gets away with no consequences for driving with no insurance! Austin told me that my blue form was not good enough to suspend his license, since they gave me the bumb's rush at the police station when i tried to get them to help me with the report.

[KATHYLUE]

I tried to take my case to small claims court. Paid $80. to have Ogar served with papers. They said i gave them a bad address. The guilty party could have stood at the door and lied. I was told by a very short, rude woman at the court house that I would have to pay another $80. to try again. I hope they get this program and tow every one of those creeps away!