by Edith Delgado contributing writer

With the gas prices constantly going up, I literally broke my head thinking about how I could save money. School loans are never enough, and my minimum paying job, of course, doesn’t pay enough. So, I began to share my complaints with my partner who asked me if I had considered buying a moped. And this spring semester that’s exactly what I did. I bought a gorgeous royal blue and silver Roketa 50 cc, street-legal scooter, along with a cute pink helmet.

As I waited for the bike’s title to arrive, I went ahead and purchased insurance. As the days passed, I began to think about the horrific stories students have shared with me when they were involved in an accident on campus, accidents with the uninsured. I got to thinking, what are the chances of me being involved in a bike accident; the situation would be worse if I was seriously injured. But as long as the other person has liability insurance then I should be covered, medical expenses and all, right? Unfortunately, there seems to be more uninsured drivers. How does Texas A&M University—Corpus Christi police handle enforcing the law that requires drivers, specifically on campus, to follow the law?

This semester a change was made before purchasing a parking permit; the license plate number was required, whereas before it wasn’t mandatory. The clerk said that it was the university police department (UPD) who implemented the change. I hadn’t thought about it much then, but now that I ride a bike, things have changed.

Although the law requires drivers to have auto insurance, dailytexasonline.com states that “20 percent of Texas drivers currently do not hold a policy.” In addition, a “cautious driver who isn’t at-fault when an accident occurs, but it is the insured driver who has to pay for the accident the uninsured driver caused, which affects the insurance rates to increase overall,” according to tiffanyinsurance.com.

This ultimately costs “Texas drivers almost $1 billion a year to protect themselves against those without coverage,” as reported by dentonrc.com. In addition, the Web site adds that of “roughly 16 million drivers in Texas, 4 million are uninsured.”

In February 2008, Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported that “as many as one in three drivers in Nueces County [are] without insurance.” In 2006 a total of 12,474 of drivers were cited for driving without proof of insurance, according to caller.com

The Corpus Christi Police Department and the UPD do not collaborate with each other when it comes to this problem. Police Chief Bryan Smith said, “So far, we are having great success with our towing for no insurance policy. CCPD has no authority to create a towing for no insurance policy on the TAMU—CC campus.” However, Smith does believe that “the university (should) consider requiring proof of insurance to get a parking pass, and perhaps, immediate revocation of parking privileges if they have an accident on campus and it is found that they don’t have an active insurance policy.”

Of the high number of citations given on campus, a total of 15 students do not have car insurance, according to the secretaries, who prefer to not be identified by name, that work in the office of Judge Larry G. Cox, Precinct 2. That is where students go to pay citations given by the UPD.

UPD is aware of the high number of uninsured drivers. “A citation will be issued,” said Roy Casares, UPD sergeant; they know this because almost all officers on patrol give multiple citations nearly every day for no insurance. Casares said that in order to make any changes requiring proof of insurance would be a process of legalities; therefore, the problem is passed on to CCPD and Cox at the Precinct 2.

The reason UPD made a prerequisite to include the license plate numbers was because they “want to identify the (owner) student on campus” immediately, said Roy Dilks, Parking/Traffic Control Supervisor. In case there is an emergency, such as a car on fire, UPD would then be able to find the student immediately by looking at their class schedule. Ultimately, the UPD’s job isn’t to inconvenience students with important stuff like implementing car insurance, or enforce state laws, but rather to keep students safe.

My concern is not only for myself, but all of those students who own car insurance.