2f Safety Responsibility

Question 1

Safety Responsibility

What is the Safety Responsibility Act?

Answer 1

• The Safety Responsibility Act was enacted to ensure all drivers are financially responsible for the death, injury, or property damage they may cause while operating a motor vehicle.
• All owners and/or operators of motor vehicles in Texas must have at least the minimum amount of liability insurance.
• In order to comply with the Safety Responsibility Act, a driver, unless exempt, must maintain liability insurance or be self-insured under the provisions of the Act.

Question 2

Safety Responsibility

What is the minimum amount of liability insurance?

Answer 2

• $30,000 against injury or death of one person
• $60,000 against injury or death of two persons
• $25,000 against property damage

Question 3

Safety Responsibility

When must evidence of financial responisbility be presented, and to who?

Answer 3

• Evidence of financial responsibility must be presented to the proper authorities at the time a person applies for a driver license, registers a motor vehicle, or obtains a motor vehicle inspection certificate.
• Every owner and/or operator of a motor vehicle in Texas is required, as a condition of driving, to furnish upon request, evidence of financial responsibility to a law enforcement officer or to another person involved in a crash.

Question 4

Safety Responsibility

What is acceptable for proof of financial responsibility?

Answer 4

• a liability insurance policy in at least the minimum amounts listed above, or
• a standard proof of liability insurance form

Question 5

Safety Responsibility

What happens if you fail to provide proof of financial responsibility?

Answer 5

• If an owner and/or operator fails to show proof of financial responsibility when required, they may receive a citation.
• The court will dismiss the charge if proof is provided that a liability insurance policy was in effect when the citation was issued.
• Upon conviction of operating a motor vehicle without sufficient evidence of financial responsibility, when required, a driver is subject to a $175 minimum fine and not more than a $350 maximum fine.

Question 6

Safety Responsibility

What 5 things result in the license and motor vehicle registration of a driver to be suspended?

Answer 6

• Upon conviction of a traffic violation providing for automatic suspension of a driver license, unless proof of insurance is presented to the DPS
• If a judgment resulting from a crash has not been satisfied within 60 days of the judgment
• If an installment agreement arising out of a settlement of a crash is in default
• If, while uninsured, involved in a crash in which another person is killed, injured, or there is at least $1,000 damage to one person’s property and there exists a reasonable probability of a judgment being rendered against the driver
• When required to maintain proof of financial responsibility, this proof must remain on file for two years.