Fresh news about uninsured Texas motorists

The county where former Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a hunting acquaintance in 2006 leads Texas in the percentage of uninsured motorists, according to the latest figures from a state database released Tuesday.

In Kenedy County, south of Corpus Christi, 49.7 percent of registered vehicles could not be matched to an insurance policy, according to figures released to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram today by the Texas Department of Insurance. Thankfully, for the sake of people driving through the area, Kenedy County is a sparsely populated place with only 338 registered vehicles (168 of which could not be verified as insured).

The place in Texas with the second highest percentage of vehicles that don't have verified insurance is Cameron County, near Brownsville.

In North Texas, Tarrant County has a relatively low number of uninsured drivers -- slightly below the state average of 22 percent. About 1.28 million cars are registered in the Fort Worth area, and 269,868 of them do not have verified insurance.

But it's a different story in Dallas, where a whopping 481,877 vehicles -- 25.71 percent of the total -- do not have verified insurance.

Here's a link to our story that ran in today's Star-Telegram print edition. In the story, state officials say they believe the state's TexasSure database that helps police verify liability coverage is reducing the overall number of uninsured motorists. In June 2008, an estimated 25 percent of the driving public didn't have coverage, according to the insurance department. That number dropped to 23 percent, as we reported this morning. But now, with this latest information coming out of Austin, it looks like the statewide average of uninsured motorists has dropped to 22 percent as of November.

Next year, the insurance department will step up its efforts to get more insured motorists on the road by sending letters to the registered owners of vehicles that don't match up on its database.

-- Gordon.

Comments

[preston]

What you forgot to mention is that the majority are illegal mexicans.I have been hit twice by these illegals AND HAVE HAD MY VEHICLE STOLEN TWICE BY MEXICANS THAT HAVE NO REGARD FOR AMERICAS LAWS.WAKE UP AMERICA!! ILLEGAL MEXICANS ARE STEALING OUR FUTURE AND TRASHING OUR COUNTRY.

[c.hernandez]

you ignorant bastard how many states did the white man steal from the mexicans and you call them illegals.

[Rick]

I was also hit by a hispanic that had a fake insurance card. I do understand that some people cannot afford insurance but they still need to suffer the consquences of breaking the law. I am sorry that hispanic people are raising there children that it is okay to break the law if they do not agree with it.

[Rick from Mesquite]

I live in a area ( Mesquite )that is full of illegals. The trash that is thrown on the streets makes me so mad. If they would follow all the laws ( insureance, regestration and inspections) that we have to, then their labor cost would not be as cheap.
The states we got from Mexico is what happens when you start a war and lose that war.

[John]

Mexicans are number one in uninsured drivers. There is no question about it. Please don't justify or deny it. The other day my friend's car was hit by a guy from Mexico and he didn't have a license. Police came (He was Mexican too) and told that he is going to give him a ticket. This guy don't have an ID or address, then how the ticket will work.

[katfish]

To C. Hernandez. U are an Idiot. The white man took nothing from the mexicans. You had nothing to take and still do not. Go look at Juarez as it is nothing but a shit hole full of dirty mexicans. Chean up your own country before you come into ours.

[Historian]

Actually C. Hernandez, Mexico was paid cash money for the land the "white man" acquired. If you had a proper education, you would have learned this in 3rd grade history. The two purchases were part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo when the US paid Mexico $15 million for land, and the Gadsden Purchase when the US paid Mexico $10 million for land.

[Enlightened]

Let's hear the demographics of these areas and cross reference them with the insurance statistics. I guarantee we're talking about Hispanics and Blacks without insurance. And yet, it's not politically correct to make that statement even if it is true. Truth takes a back seat to being politically correct. That ideology is an open door to disaster.

[Chester]

TX has a large number of uninsured, and drunk drivers. The cars of these individuals should be seized, until they can afford, insurance. I don't care how poor they are, if they can't afford insurance, they shouldn't be allowed to drive.

[Don Birkholz]

Get ready for a rash of stolen cars, stolen license plates, more people on food stamps, more rent delinquencies, more people in jails, more people hating the law officials, more burglaries,and more people "borrowing" a relative's car and still driving around without insurance.

If a person drives for 50 years and doesn't have an accident, he is out 20,000$. How do you fix that problem?

[ugg on sale]

Among thousands of people, you meet those you've met. Through thousands of years, with the boundlessness of time, you happen to meet them, neither earlier nor a bit too late.