why is there insurance against uninsured drivers?
In: 144
Is this a real question?
Because people drive without insurance. And most people, even if they have insurance, don’t have enough insurance.
I assume you are talking about the US?
To answer your question, if someone uninsured crashes into you they most likely won’t have the funds to pay for damages. The insurance covers you in those cases
different countries have different ways of doing it. I live in Australia and you can have
* comprehensive – covers both your car and their car and property for all accidents, regardless of fault
* Third Party – covers their car and property if you are in an accident and you are at fault. Some providers also cover your car up to a certain price if it wasn’t your fault and some also cover uninsured drivers
* Third party fire and theft – same as above, but covers your car if it is stolen or set on fire
* No insurance – self explanatory
Then there is Compulsary third party insurance which is paid as part of your car registration. This covers you and other people for injury or death in an accident, but doesn’t cover any property or vehicles. As the name implies, this is not optional
Insurance agent here. Uninsured and under insured motorist covers bodily injury claims another party causes to you. The benefit to you is this. Most people have medical insurance so if you are hurt you could get the medical bills paid for and your med coverage would likely go after the at-fault party. Uninsured/underinsured would allow your insurance carrier to pay out for thing that medical coverage won’t like pain & suffering or lost wagers. Bodily injury damages go much further that just direct medical bills
Didn’t know this was a thing. I assumed collision insurance covered me if I was hit by an uninsured driver. Same as if I was hit while my car was parked on the street and they guy got away. If this is not the case and there is a whole other secret kind of insurance I need, someone please tell me.
Fun fact: some countries have established Guarantee Funds for car insurance that work similarly to FDIC for banks. If uninsured driver damages your car, you get paid by your own insurance anyway (you do not need a special ‘uninsured driver’ coverage, you are covered by default). Then the insurance company gets reimbursed from the fund and/or goes after the driver at fault.
Here’s a look at uninsured motorist rates in the US by state:
[https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-uninsured-motorists](https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-uninsured-motorists)
In seven US states, 1 in 5 drivers are not insured. Two of these states [Florida and Michigan] are in the top 10 US states by population.
That is a serious issue for a number of reasons:
* hit and run drivers
* injuries not covered by driver at fault
* victim loss of transportation/work
Dash cams are still not universal in the States, so there is a lot of abuse of insurance laws, plus many motorists comply by getting insurance when they purchase a vehicle, but they let the insurance lapse to save money.
So, it is imperative to protect oneself against uninsured motorists.
because if they’re at fault and don’t have insurance AND can’t pay, then who would you like to cover it?
Imagine you are hit by an uninsured driver.
You can sue them, sure. If they’re poor, as is likely among uninsured drivers, then you will get nothing – can’t draw blood from a stone as they say.
What does this leave? It leaves you fucked.
Well guess what – congratulations to you because insurance is the practice of selling someone protection from getting fucked. Lucky for you, your insurance company has seen people get fucked this way before, so they offer a specific type of insurance where you pay them $X/mo and now in the event that you get hit by someone who is uninsured, you are no longer fucked.
It’s really just an additional layer of insurance. Companies like to offer various layers because not everybody needs the same $250/mo policy. Maybe in your Rolls Royce that makes sense, but when I’m driving my late grandmother’s ’91 Corolla, it literally makes no sense at all to spend $250/mo when the car is worth a few thousand – if you hit this shitty Corolla and you’re not insurance, whatever, fuck it.
To remedy this difference in car values and perceived risks by the consumers, they offer layers of insurance. Theft, vandalism, hail damage. These things are stupid on a ’91 Corolla, but they are vital on that ’23 Cadillac that you just rolled off the lot.
How regular insurance works is the insurance of the driver at fault will pay.
If your car was hit by another car (their fault), and they didn’t have insurance. Who’s gonna pay for the damages then?
Latest Answers