As the estimated cost of the Trinity River Vision project climbs toward $1 billion, an unexpected benefit could soon emerge: lower car insurance premiums.
That would come as a pleasant surprise to Fort Worth resident Mike Phipps, who has sent e-mails to city and state officials for a year pushing for a mandatory towing ordinance for all uninsured vehicles – partly because reducing the number of uninsured drivers on Fort Worth streets could cut insurance rates by as much as 20 percent for everyone else.
An e-mail from Mayor Mike Moncrief’s office explained to Phipps that the city’s current auto pound isn’t large enough to accommodate an influx of “no-insurance tows.”
In a coincidence that could work in Phipps’ favor, construction crews will move the pound to a larger space this fall as part of the Trinity River Vision project.
Randle Harwood, director of the TRV project, said the new area, a few blocks north of the current auto pound, is an interim location that could become permanent. Initially the space will be smaller than what Fort Worth police use now but could be expanded to about 40 acres.
“There’s certainly space … to accommodate whatever … is needed in the future,” Harwood said.
Many cities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area – including Irving, Arlington, Mesquite, Desoto, and Plano – have already passed ordinances requiring that all vehicles stopped for traffic violations be towed if drivers cannot show proof of insurance.
“I don’t understand why they [Fort Worth officials] haven’t taken measures on this sooner,” Phipps said. “I think it’s very irresponsible of them.”
Fort Worth currently does not tow vehicles that lack auto insurance. Drivers who fail to show proof of insurance receive a citation carrying a $289 fine. After three such citations, the driver’s license can be suspended.
The e-mail from Moncrief’s office said the city’s auto pound is already “operating at maximum capacity year-round,” but that staff members were “identifying potential sites” for expansion.
Phipps said that a small auto pound shouldn’t get in the way of cracking down on drivers without insurance. “I asked them, ‘Are we going to stop arresting people for other crimes because there is no more room in the evidence room?’,” Phipps said.
He learned about the benefits of a mandatory towing policy in the course of researching insurance laws because of a car accident he was involved in last year. Drivers who carry proper insurance “are paying for all of the people who do not have insurance,” Phipps said. “This is definitely costing us all and costing us dearly.”
Phipps isn’t the only one concerned. After several residents brought the issue to city council member Carter Burdette, he asked Fort Worth police to evaluate Dallas’ towing program over a six-month period to determine if Fort Worth should adopt the same policy. A report is expected to be presented to the city council soon.
Burdette said the ordinance, if passed, could have a positive impact for everyone. Uninsured drivers raise everybody’s insurance premiums, he said, which is why state law requires all cars to have basic liability insurance. “We have laws on the books, and we ought to make a reasonable effort to enforce those laws,” he said.
But Burdette also said that some rules need to be in place before the city makes the change. “It’s a question of how much it costs,” he said. Burdette said the size of the pound and police time must also be considered.
“Say some woman is pulled over at 2 in the morning [and her car is towed]. Are you just going to leave her stranded there by the side of the road?” Burdette said. “These are things that we need to consider.”
City council member Frank Moss said the ordinance could do more harm than good. “It’s a good concept, but the real problem is as it relates to low-income people. It would have a devastating impact on them,” he said. “They need to be responsible, true, but if you start impounding the cars, you’re really impacting the livelihood of a lot of folks.” He said some residents might need to be educated about basic liability insurance and how to get it.
Police spokesman Lt. Paul Henderson echoed Moss’ caution. “We’ll take a holistic approach in evaluating their [Dallas’] program before making any plans,” he said. “We’re not just jumping into something without making sure that we’re looking at all sides of the issue.”
Police have used the same nine-acre auto pound since 1977, and Trinity River Vision planners have known for four years that it would have to be moved. The plan is to shift the operation to the city’s Brennan Service Center, less than a mile away.
Henderson said the police department had already been planning to expand the auto pound before city officials started talking about the mandatory towing ordinance.
In Dallas, before passing a towing ordinance, the city council debated whether its pound would be large enough to accommodate an influx of towed vehicles. Sgt. Warren Mitchell, a police spokesman, said storage space is not a problem for Dallas right now.
In the seven months since Dallas police began enforcing the ordinance, more than 5,300 uninsured vehicles have been towed, or about 20 a day. The Dallas auto pound can hold about 2,300 cars; on a recent day, 1,552 of those spaces were filled.
The Fort Worth pound can hold about 950 vehicles. In 2008, Fort Worth police gave nearly 79,000 citations to drivers without auto insurance.
But it’s unlikely that Fort Worth police would tow 70,000 vehicles in a year, Henderson said. “Even in the Dallas program, the officers are give a certain amount of discretion,” he said. For instance, an officer would be unlikely to tow the car of a single mother who was taking her kids to day care in a car on which insurance had recently expired.
“She more than likely would be provided a citation,” he said. “But we would disenfranchise that single mother with her family if we towed her car.”
In Dallas, many insurance agents are thrilled about the change. “Pretty much everybody I talk to is excited about the program and getting people accountable,” said Scott LaDuke, a State Farm Insurance agent in Dallas.
“I would guess probably between 10 and 20 percent of what [clients] pay on their insurance premium is for claims from uninsured or underinsured drivers,” he said. “If you can cut the number of claims in half with more people having insurance, then we will be able to lower the rate,” LaDuke said.
Teresa Ybarra, an agent with Doc Jackson Auto Insurance, said the company has seen an increase in business this year. “They have to get insurance to get their car out of the pound,” she said. “We are busier now than we … were last year.”
Ybarra said more people started buying insurance after the new policy was publicized. But some drivers are angry because, although they had auto insurance, they didn’t have their insurance card with them, so police towed their car anyway. “They [customers] do mention how strict Dallas is now,” Ybarra said.
The Texas Department of Insurance estimates that one out of five cars on the road in this state lacks insurance. “We want all drivers to have the minimum liability insurance because that’s required by law,” agency spokesman Jerry Hagins said. As for towing uninsured vehicles, he said “It’s completely a local decision; it’s not in state law.”
Hagins said the average cost of basic auto insurance in Texas is $340 a year, or about $28 a month. “When you look at the cost of driving a car, what do you spend each year in gas, in replacing tires, in getting oil changed?” he said. “It’s one of the costs of driving a car, and we all have to do it.”
