Program to Help Police Find Uninsured Drivers Unveiled

By Lacie Morrison, Mineral Wells Index, Texas

Oct. 8--When a pickup and vehicle crashed into each other Monday morning at the intersection of S.E. 25th Avenue and S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Street, there was a 20 percent chance one of the vehicles was not insured.

Sure enough, the car that pulled in front of the truck was driven by a woman who, not only did not have auto insurance, but she was not even licensed to drive. She had as a passenger a 4-year-old girl, who police said was not properly restrained.

The uninsured female driver of a Chevrolet Lumina and her young passenger were both injured and sent to Palo Pinto General Hospital.

According to the Mineral Wells police officer who worked the wreck, a Ford pickup was traveling southbound on S.E. 25th Avenue at approximately 7:40 a.m. when the Lumina crossed eastbound in front of him from S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Street.

"The Chevy Lumina failed to yield the right-of-way and pulled out in front of him," the officer said. The truck struck the driver's side doors, causing them to cave in. The female driver of the Lumina and her four-year-old female passenger were transported by ground ambulance to the hospital. The driver of the pickup wasn't injured, the officer said, and was able to drive away.

According to police, the driver of the car was issued citations for a seatbelt violation for unrestrained child, failure to yield the right-of-way at a stop sign, no driver's license and no insurance.

An estimated one in five vehicles -- approximately 4 million -- drive on Texas roads without proper insurance, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. With the implementation of TexasSure, that number could drop dramatically.

TexasSure is a vehicle insurance verification database designed to reduce the number of uninsured motorists, according to DPS. The program was mandated by the Texas Legislature and is a collaborative effort between DPS, the Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Department of Information Resources and the Texas Department of Insurance.

According to DPS, it "is a secure database that matches the records of registered passenger vehicles with personal auto insurance policy information submitted by Texas insurance companies." It became available to law enforcement agencies statewide Oct. 1 following a "successful [60-day] field test program by the DPS in the Austin area."

"After a vehicle is pulled over, the TexasSure database is a fantastic tool that helps law enforcement identify those who are driving without insurance or with an expired and phony insurance document," said DPS Lt. Louis Sanchez.

Law enforcement officers can use either the license plate number or vehicle identification number to submit a query to the new database through the Texas Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, according to DPS. Mineral Wells senior dispatcher Bernie Mitchell explained the program provides them with the type of vehicle, insurance carrier, a policy number and dates of issue and expiration.

"It'll be very beneficial to us," said Mineral Wells Police Chief Mike McAllester. "A lot of times we come into contact with people who claim to have insurance but don't have their cards."

He explained that the program will help not only with verifying coverage during traffic stops but also when filling out accident reports.

When a driver doesn't have their card, McAllester said, "We can't finish the accident report until we verify the insurance. It takes a lot of time to do that. The opportunity to verify that immediately will be very beneficial to us as well as to the other people involved [in the collision]. There's always some reservations about if the other person has insurance, especially if you're not at fault."

Mineral Wells DPS Sgt. Jason Dudley said, "I truly believe that the TexasSure verification program is going to be a great tool for my troopers to verify whether a motorist has liability insurance. Far too often individuals will pay the initial premium and get an insurance card that indicates that the policy is valid for six months. However, the individual will then stop paying the monthly premium and although the insurance has been cancelled, the driver presents a valid card to the trooper that has stopped them.

"This program will eliminate that. In addition, many motorists utilize computers and software programs to generate fictitious insurance cards that have been almost impossible to detect during a roadside traffic stop. This program will allow the trooper to immediately identify fictitious insurance cards and take action."

McAllester speculated that statistics associated with no insurance citations will increase as law enforcement agencies utilize the program. From January through September, the Mineral Wells Police Department has issued 1,310 citations. Last month alone saw officers issuing 155 citations for no insurance.

"We issue a lot of citations and we issue a lot of arrests for no insurance," McAllester remarked. "We welcome something that'd hasten the process [of verification]."

"Law-abiding motorists pay so much money in extra premiums to protect themselves from uninsured drivers. This is simply unacceptable and not fair to the many motorists that are responsible drivers that respect the law and insure their vehicles," commented Dudley. "I commend the State of Texas for developing a tool for law enforcement officers to identify uninsured drivers and take the appropriate action that will encourage those drivers to get insurance.

"If you are a law-abiding motorist and have insurance you have nothing to worry about. I think those motorists that attempt to cheat the system are in for a wake up call. I believe this program will increase compliance significantly."

According to state law, drivers are required to carry insurance on their vehicles with required minimum coverage of $25,000 per injured person, up to a total of $50,000 for everyone injured, and $25,000 for property damage. This was increased from $20,000/$40,000/$15,000 in April following the passage of a Senate bill in September, the first increase in minimum insurance coverage in Texas in 22 years.

Not having insurance can become expensive in more ways than one.

According to the Mineral Wells court clerk, a citation for no insurance is $312 for the first occurrence. Each subsequent citation for the same charge increases the fee by $50.

In addition to the citation fee, drivers could also face perhaps hundreds of dollars more in court costs and additional fees. Repeat offenders are also subject to a suspension of their driver's license, according to DPS.

Sanchez warns drivers, "If you don't have liability insurance for your vehicle, your chances of getting a ticket just went up dramatically. If you have insurance, continue to carry your proof of insurance, as required by state law."

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