Houston Auto Insurance

Houston is home to 10% of all the crashes in Texas each year, so it’s important to know how to stay safe.

Welcome to Houston

People new to driving in Houston will tell you that it is unlike any other driving experience they have had before, even if they have driven in other major cities. To keep yourself safe, make sure you know how to get around before you get there and that you have an adequate amount of insurance. With a little bit of luck and safe driving skills you can prevent yourself from becoming one of the crash statistics.

Houston Crash Statistics

In the city of Houston in 2011, there were a total of 38,538 car accidents. Of these accidents only 177 were fatal. Now, it is a bad thing to even have one fatal crash but to have fatal crashes make up less than a ½ percent of the total accidents that happen in a major city is excellent.

The bulk of the accidents that happened in 2011 were non-injury accidents (23,390) and minor injury accidents (9,281).

Compared to the rest of the state, there were 2,751 fatal crashes out of 381,463 total car accidents in the state of Texas in 2011. Percentage wise, this is higher than Houston’s fatality rate but is still less than 1%.

Unfortunately for Houston though, their total accident numbers mean that 10% of the accidents that happened in the state of Texas in 2011 happened in Houston. (Texas Department of Transportation)

Houston Carpool Lanes

Officially these lanes are known as HOV (high-occupancy vehicle) lanes, but most of us know them still as the carpool lane. For those that are not from larger cities or have never heard of these lanes, they are special lanes on the freeway that allow cars with multiple people in them pass the rest of traffic. They were originally used as a reward for driving somewhere together with someone else (like work), because that meant you were doing your part to get more vehicles off the road.

In Houston however, they didn’t have enough people taking advantage of the HOV lane so they came up with a new plan that drivers new to the city need to be aware of. These HOV lanes are now also called HOT lanes.

HOT lanes allow drivers with no passengers drive in the HOV lane during specific periods of time and certain traffic situations to ease traffic congestion. The catch? To be able to drive in these lanes you have to pay a toll each time you decide to drive in one.

For more information on how to use these HOT lanes and how to pay the toll, visit the ridemetro.org website.

Houston Insurance Laws

In the state of Texas, drivers are only required to carry insurance that would pay for the damages to another person from an accident they cause. Since insurance laws are statewide, Houston abides by these laws instead of having their own.

Texas minimum insurance requirements include:

• $30,000 in bodily injury coverage for a single person for medical expenses
• $60,000 in bodily injury coverage for two or more people for medical expenses
• $25,000 in property damage coverage

If you are caught driving around Houston without insurance coverage you could face fines from $175 to $1,000. So be safe, drive careful, and carry insurance when you are driving in Houston.