Texas motorists have a new tool to obtain state-required auto insurance, a state agency spokesman said Tuesday.
Jerry Hagins, spokesman for the Texas Department of Insurance, said motorists can visit helpin
sure.com to find companies with the lowest insurance premiums for them.
“If anyone is realizing that they need car insurance, it’s a great place to shop,” Hagins said. “You enter in your ZIP code, and it will bring up the top insurers in your area with some sample prices. It also works for home insurance.”
Hagins’ announcement comes three weeks after the Texas Department of Insurance released numbers from a year-old statewide database that compares uninsured vehicles county by county.
Gregg County ranked tops in East Texas in the percentage of uninsured vehicles. According to the database, one in four of Gregg County’s 124,459 registered vehicles is not insured.
“It’s a database of vehicles, so it’s not a people database,” Hagins said. “Whether you’re an illegal citizen or someone who just entered the state, if you have a registered car with an insurance policy, you could be in the database.”
Gregg County’s 25.04 percent exceeds the state average of 22.16 percent. Among 33 Texas counties with at least 100,000 residents, only Cameron, Dallas, Ector, Midland, Hidalgo, Potter and Webb counties have higher percentages of uninsured motorists than Gregg.
“There could be valid reasons why the vehicle doesn’t have insurance,” Hagins said. “Some people may not have insurance on that registered vehicle, but this is a strong indication that they probably should have it.”
Because the database is new, state officials have no hard numbers from past years to determine whether more uninsured motorists are on the roads, he said.
“Hopefully, we’ll be getting better and not worse,” Hagins said.
