Uninsured Drivers - what happens in US?

I was just reading that 1 in 6 drivers are driving without insurance on MSNBC. They can't afford it. Who steps up to cover damages?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30093235/

Here we have No Fault insurance in the Province. Publically owned and profitable. They pick up the tab for the insured person, and sue the other driver if he's responsible. If both aren't insured, the public damage is their baby, and the police charge them accordingly, but hospital care comes under our public health care. Post-op care is their problem as well.

 

Without a government-run health plan, it's a mixed bag here. Probably handled much the same, except for private health insurers getting involved. It also depends on what state you're in. Some are no-fault, but most are not.

It all depends on what coverage the involved parties have taken out.
Let's say you carry full coverage on your vehicle, and are in an accident with an uninsured at-fault driver. Your insurance company picks up the tab for whatever their policy coverage is for, then they would go after (correct term is 'subrogate') the other party for reimbursement. In a lot of cases, the other party may not have enough assets, so it's a loss for the insurance company, and they just write it off.

You could also have the same situation as above, except the at-fault party HAS insurance, but not enough coverage. What if your injuries are worth $50,000 in medical costs / pain & suffering; your vehicle has $17,000 in damage, but the guy only carrys 15,000 BI; 10,000 PD coverage? If you carry unisured motorist and uninsured property damage coverage, YOUR coverage would then kick in to pay the excess over the other guy's policy.

Some states (such as California) have laws that prevent uninsured motorists from collecting 'pain & suffering' damages if they're not at fault in an accident.

Ledt me know if you have some specific questions about all of this.

 

If you or your vehicle are hit by an uninsured motorist, your insurance company covers your bills, assuming you have UM coverage.
I strongly recommend that you carry that coverage, as medical bills from a routine car crash can bankrupt you if you try to pay them out of pocket.
Then they go after the at fault party, and/or their insurance company and attempt to recover as much of the loss as they can.
I was rear ended by a young man who was driving an uninsured car, and suffered approximately $500.00 in damages. No one was injured, and there were no witnesses.
Since my UM only covers medical expenses, it was up to me to collect the property damages.
I sent him a letter threatening to report him to the state DMV for driving without liability coverage (required by law here).
They would have revoked his license and forced him to pay me before he could take the test to get a new license.
His mother paid me the day they received the letter.

Edited to add:
I posted this before I read Krashs' informative explanation.
He obviously has some experience in this, too (I was an adjuster for a few years).

 

So if I was hit in an accident by an uninsured US motorist, my insurance would pay my costs?

Krash, that's a tough line about California's 'pain & suffering' blockage, only under an uninsured's victim situation? Wonder what the logic to that argument is.

 

Pinebox, I carry over $1,000,000. It's cheap coverage. Most people do. All you need is a slippery intersection and hit a schoolbus full of kids, and that might not be enough.

 

Yeah, PineBox, I've been a claims adjuster / damage appraiser / quality control analyst for about 30 years.

Norman, the law barring pain & suffering compensation is to prevent 'profiting' from a collision, when you yourself don't carry the coverage to protect others. It would only apply to the registered owner of a vehicle, and not to any innocent passengers, or another driver if not the vehicle owner. California also does not have 'no fault', so an accident is not always 100% one person's fault and 0% the other guy's fault - it could be 60/40, 70/30, or 50/50......

As to your other question, Norman, assuming Canadian auto insurance is structured similarily, then yes, your "uninsured motorist" coverage would pay for your injuries. There is also separate 'uninsured collision' coverage that you might utilize on an older vehicle in lieu of paying for full collision coverage on it.

To give you an example of that last point, let's say you have an older vehicle and elect to only carry liability coverage on it - no collision or comprehensive. In the case of an accident with an at-fault driver who has insurance, you simply go to his insurance company and make a claim. If the at-fault driver is uninsured, then your only recourse is to persue him through legal channels (court, etc) If you carried uninsured collision coverage, for a small premium, then your coverage would take the place of the other guy's property damage coverage.

Oh, as as to the limits issue, you would be suprised how many people are driving around, thinking they have "full coverage", when in fact they have limits of only 10,000/30,000 BI; 10,000 PD - which is WAY under-insured. Not even talking about injuries, it doesn't take much these days to do $10,000 in damage or more......
--- Increased limits is probably one of the better financial bargains out there. I would recommend a MIMIMUM of 100,000 / 300,000 BI and 50,000 PD.

 

All I have is liability. The wagon was 500 bucks and I'm not paying an extra 1200 bucks a year to replace a 500 dollar car if I wreck it. Besides, I drive careful and pray all the time tha tnothing happens to my baby. I keep liability because you never know when you're going to hit that slippery intersection that Normie was talking about.

 

Thanks Krash. Lots of great detail.

 

Here in NY, if your insurance laps or is canceled, they send you a summons to surrender the plates within a few days. You have 10 days to surrender them or they will issue a warrent for your arrest and you will also loose your license. Once you surrender them, you instantly have to wait 30 days till you can re-register the car or pay $5 per day x30 days to get the registration back and the car back on the road, or just wait the 30 days.

How I look at it, if some lowlife is not covered by insurance when they involve me in an accident, I will drag their arses out of their car and pound the living piss out of them, then tell the cops that they must have been knocked out in the accident. Rotten scumbags, if you can't pay the insurance, keep the POS off the road!!! Its my life and the lives of my children and wife that they are threatening. The same goes for drunk driving and streetracers, they don't ever wanna involve me in their stupidity!

 

Very informative thread, I’ve often wondered what happens in UM situations.
I carry quite a bit of coverage on all my vehicles. But a couple are starting to get older, and I’m a little on the fence whether I want to continue to care full coverage or not.

Yeah but that’s like what 8 US dollars

 

It all depends on what you can afford out-of-pocket to fix (or replace) a damaged car. In our family, we have 2 2003 vehiicles, one 2004 (a small one), and a 1991. The 1991 is older, and it only cost us $1,000 to buy it, so we're doing without collision and comp on that one. All the others have complete coverage. We figure that if the '91 vehicle gets in a wreck, it's going to be a goner anyway, and we can afford to get another cheap car if it comes down to it. Check the declarations page of your policy to see what the collision and comp costs for each vehicle are, then decide if it's worth it. ( Note: Obviously, if you have a loan against the vehicle, you HAVE to carry comp and collision.)

 

I carry uninsured/under insured on both of my cars, my life was changed by a uninsured motorist so it is a sensitive subject for me. I am getting ready to put stated value insurance on my wagon too, they don't make these cars anymore, and most of us know it is hard to find parts for any wagon so I want to protect mine to the best of my abilities.

 

Well with the current government, it does feel like Zimbabwe sometimes, but our inflation isn't that bad. Our buck is around 80 cents of yours.

 

The reason that California knows the number of persons without auto insurance is that all insurance companies have to electronically report to the DMV those who have insurance and those policies that are cancelled.

I dropped the insurance coverage on my wagon in January and reinsured it the 24th of March. I got a letter from the DMV stating that I had untill 11 May to prove insurance on the car or they would revoke the registration.

I don't know what the revokation actually is. Would they ask for the plates back...I don't know. If not then there's no way for the police to know visually if a car is registered or not.

 

We get two stickers for the rear plate: One is the day (one before your birthday), the other is the Year and Month, which is colour coded too. They catch them in a flash. And the stoplight cameras do the rest.