Constable cracks down on auto liability insurance law

Take another look at your auto liability insurance papers. If they're out of date and you're cited for something by a deputy constable from Nueces County Constable Precinct 4, your car is liable to be impounded.

Constable Bobby Sherwood said deputies had been coming upon a growing number of motorists whose liability insurance had lapsed, or who simply didn't seem ever to have insured their vehicle. Either is a violation of state law, which requires liability insurance for vehicles driven on public roadways.

While it's often court policy to dismiss charges of no liability insurance if proper papers are brought to court, that policy only applies if the insurance was in effect at the time the citation was issued, Sherwood said.

"In other words, you can't get a ticket for no liability insurance and go out and buy a policy and expect to get the ticket dismissed," he said.

On conviction, driving without liability insurance carries a fine of $385. On top of that, there's a $350 state surcharge for a total of $735.

Then, if your vehicle is impounded, there will also be a $145 fee for the towing plus a storage fee of $20 a day.

Adding it all up, the lack of liability insurance could cost you $900. And that's with only one day of storage. Plus, it doesn't include the cost of getting an insurance policy to bail your vehicle out.

"If somebody has an insurance policy that expired last week and just can't find the current policy, that's one thing," Sherwood said. "If there's no evidence he ever had insurance on the vehicle, that's another thing entirely."

Cheaper to keep your liability insurance up to date.