HOUSTON If you get caught speeding in a Houston-area school zone, get ready to shell out some big bucks.
A new survey by Allstate Insurance found that school-zone speeders in Texas paid an average of $216 for their tickets.
Allstate surveyed 80 police departments and municipal courts across the state, including 14 in the Houston area, to determine the average cost of a school zone speeding ticket in which the driver was going 10mph or more over the limit.
In the Houston area, the highest fines were in Conroe, at $276, Shenandoah, at $272 and Houston proper, at $250.
Statewide, the highest fines were found in Huntsville, at $312, and the lowest in Lufkin, at $150.
No matter how high or low the fines are in a city, they are in place to protect our kids and save lives, said Dana Philibert, an Allstate agent in Pasadena. Hopefully, any fine is enough to make drivers slow down and think.
Below are the average fines from all 14 Houston-area cities surveyed:
Conroe-- $276
Shenandoah -- $272
Houston -- $250
Baytown -- $226
Pasadena -- $225
Sugar Land -- $225
Galveston-- $222
League City -- $222
Lake Jackson -- $220
Humble -- $205
Missouri City -- $204
La Porte -- $201
Bellaire -- $200
Pearland -- $176
Rosenberg -- $160
Texas City -- $150
The survey also looked at average fines for drivers caught using cell phones in school zones.
In the Houston area, cell phone violators were fined an average of $327 in Pearland, $322 in Tomball, $297 in La Porte, $276 in Conroe and $260 in Houston proper.
Drivers talking and texting on cell phones in school zones were the biggest concerns police reported in the survey next to speeding, Philibert said. That s especially troubling because studies have shown driving distractions cause at least a quarter of all reported accidents.
