HOUSTON, April 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The most recent report from the Insurance Research Council (IRC) analyzing national and state-by-state uninsured motorist rates indicates that the estimated proportion of drivers who lacked auto insurance in Texas remained stable at 15 percent between 2007 and 2009. The estimated rates for the Lone Star State were a little more than a percentage point higher than the national rates in 2007 and 2009.

Onlineautoinsurance.com advises motorists in any state who lack a policy to get covered promptly. Driving without state-required insurance can have serious repercussions. A first conviction of driving uninsured could add up to more than $1,000 in fines and court costs.

Source: http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/auto/younginsure.html

Texas motorists also have more reason now than ever to get covered by a policy. In 2008, the state rolled out a program called TexasSure, which established a database linking registered autos up with insurance policies in order to identify vehicles that lack coverage.

The most recent statistics from TexasSure administrators place the number of registered cars that could not be matched to a policy at around 4.28 million. That's more than 22 percent of the total registered vehicles in the state.

The IRC and TexasSure estimates differ because the IRC looks at the number of drivers who lack coverage by comparing frequency of bodily injury claims to frequency of uninsured motorist claims, while TexasSure estimates the number of autos that are not insured by comparing registration and policy records.

Texas was one of seven states in the new report estimated to have an uninsured motorist rate of 15 percent. The median proportion for states was 13 percent.

To learn more about this and other Texas car coverage issues, readers can go to http://www.onlineautoinsurance.com/texas/ where visitors will find informative resource pages as well as a rate-comparison generator that can help jump-start the search for an affordably priced policy.

SOURCE Online Auto Insurance, LLC