Harper said he frequently gets calls like this.
“At least every week I have an accident that involves an uninsured or underinsured driver,” said Harper, an 18-year veteran with State Farm Insurance. “It is still a major problem. There are a lot of people that will buy it (automobile insurance) for a week, just to get their car registered, inspected or to get a driver’s license and then they cancel it. They get it for a temporary time and they just drop it.”
In Texas, one out of every five vehicles on the road today has no insurance. Protection against uninsured and underinsured motorists costs vehicle owners $1 billion annually, says TexasSure, a vehicle insurance verification program.
TexasSure employs a statewide database that matches more than 21 million license plates numbers with insurance information. Rebecca Davio, Texas Department of Transportation director of vehicle titles and registration, said 3 million queries are made monthly to TexasSure.
Senior Cpl. Charlie Morgan of the Department of Public Safety office that covers Temple, Killeen and Waco, said this program helps catch these insurance cheaters. When a trooper stops a motorist or investigates an accident, he checks the license number and insurance card. If the vehicle is uninsured, the trooper will issue a citation.
“When we run what we call a 10-28, it comes up on our screen and shows the information,” Morgan said. “Most of the time it’s the vehicle that’s covered and not the driver. That’s the reason it was tied in with the vehicle data base and not the driver data base.”
Another way to catch people who drive vehicles with expired or canceled automobile insurance happens at the county level when a motorist applies for vehicle registration. Even if that person displays a current insurance card, the clerk accesses the TexasSure system. If the insurance is not valid, no window sticker or new plates will be issued.
TexasSure, now one year old, is a group effort among four state agencies, including the DPS, TxDOT and the Department of Insurance. The Texas Legislature enacted the program to lower the number of uninsured motorists. Jerry Hagins, TDI spokesman, said at this point there is no data to measure if the program is making a difference. But, other states with similar programs have seen significant reductions over time.
“The fact that we don’t have data yet doesn’t indicate we’re not headed in the right direction. It’s just too early. It’s going to take time to permeate the culture,” Hagins said. “Eventually we’ll know. Right now, we’re just running the program. We’re not trying to measure.”
On the Web at www.texassure.com
