How many drivers would you guess share the road with you on your daily work commute? What about when you’re out running errands or shuttling the kids to and from school and their activities? Would it scare you to know that about one out of every eight of those road-sharing motorists doesn’t have even a minimal level of car insurance?
It should. It could cost you plenty.
Let’s delve a little deeper into the topic and see what kind of threat uninsured drivers pose to you and your finances and what you can do about it.
What Does It Mean to Be an Uninsured Driver?
Auto insurance is mandatory in Georgia, as it is in almost every U.S. state. All drivers must be licensed and carry at least liability insurance, the minimal accepted level of coverage.
Makes sense — right? But that doesn’t mean that everyone follows that very logical law. Georgia ranks 23rd among states for the percentage of uninsured drivers on its city streets, rural roads, and congested highways. Put another way, about 12.4% of Georgian drivers don’t have even minimal coverage. Think you can avoid all of them for the entire time you drive?
Georgia is an at-fault state. That simply means that the insurance company covering the driver who’s deemed to be at fault for the accident pays for covered damages.
So if another driver causes a collision with your vehicle, and it’s their fault, their insurance company must pay you for your covered losses. But…what insurance company?
If there’s no insurer, that other motorist must pay the claims personally. But if they had the financial resources to do so, wouldn’t they have gotten auto insurance coverage in the first place?
Sure, you could sue the uninsured driver. You may even win your case and gain a judgment covering your losses.
But if the driver doesn’t have even enough money to buy the cheapest policy allowed to get behind the wheel of their vehicle legally, do you think they’ll typically be able to write you a check for the thousands of dollars you might have racked up in car repair and personal injury costs?
Good luck with that.
Keep in mind, car repair pricing in Georgia is on the high side against the national average. And it ain’t exactly cheap anywhere.
Your Auto Insurance Agent Has a Better Solution
Your own insurance company won’t usually cover the damages for other drivers unless the fault is yours. Your own liability insurance will never help you pay for your own costs associated with an accident in Georgia. In the scenario mentioned above, there’s no one to pay the stiff out-of-pocket car repair expenses but you. And that could total thousands of dollars. That is unless you pay just a little bit more and get coverage for uninsured and underinsured motorists.
(An underinsured driver has car insurance but at policy limits so low it won’t go far toward paying for your damages.)
With uninsured/underinsured motorist benefits, if you sustain car repairs, medical bills, lost wages, pain, and suffering, or other valid claims, your own insurer will help foot the perhaps significant bills. You’ll have auto insurance coverage for repairs and other costs of an accident.
Reach out to an independent auto insurance agent. They can explain why you should have collision and comprehensive insurance instead of just liability and the benefit of paying just a little bit more for uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage.
Your independent agent can also explain the various factors affecting repair costs and get you the market’s most affordable auto insurance rates. That’s because independent agents don’t work for just a single insurer. They contract with multiple insurance companies, so you always get the most competitive rates on the best deal.