Why is it so hard to collect  a car accident insurance claim, even when you weren’t at fault? Because insurance companies are stingy–and are getting even stingier due to uninsured motorists on the road. When an uninsured driver is at fault in a car accident, then the claim goes to the innocent driver’s insurer, who doesn’t want to pay. And that’s a huge problem.

Some Texas cities are doing something about it — but Houston isn’t one of them. According to a report on KHOU Channel 11 News, more than 15,000 drivers annually for the past two years were ticketed in Houston for driving without car insurance — a legal offense. And some uninsured drivers were ticketed repeatedly. In fact, more than 100 people got ticketed five times for the same offense.

But all of them kept driving — and they still didn’t buy car insurance. So their tickets meant nothing.

It’s estimated that 15 per cent of Houston drivers are uninsured. When they don’t pay, insurance companies expect the rest of us to take up the slack by increasing their fees — or denying, delaying or underpaying coverage that you’ve already purchased and they rightly owe.

But while Houston police keep futilely issuing tickets to uninsured drivers who keep driving uninsured, the Houston-area cities of Richmond and Pasadena are taking more decisive action. They’ve begun impounding the vehicles of motorists who drive without insurance.

So far in Richmond, that’s resulted in almost one-third fewer tickets issued to uninsured drivers. Clearly, deadbeat drivers are getting the message and finally are buying insurance. And if not? Their uninsured vehicles no longer are a menace to law-abiding folks who take care of business.

Houston, are you listening? The nation’s fourth largest city needs a firmer hand on this crisis than issuing ticket after ticket that deadbeat drivers ignore — and keep on ignoring. Hit ‘em where they hurt most — their ability to drive — and we may see that growing number of uninsured drivers become a glowing number of legally insured motorists.

But back to you: If you’re struggling to get insurance payments for injuries in a car accident you did not cause, alert a car accident lawyer or personal injury lawyer with Jim S. Adler & Associates, and we’ll do our best to help.  And if you live in Houston, let your City Council reps know that the slap on the wrist of a traffic ticket is utterly failing to get the job done of making deadbeat drivers get insurance — or get off our roads.

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