You’re driving along and all of a sudden BAM! A car turning left into your lane doesn’t see you and you find yourself involved in a car accident. But you don’t have anything to worry about, right? After all it was obviously the other driver’s fault so their insurance will pay for your car and any injuries you may have sustained. You get out of your vehicle and the other driver approaches you, begging you not to call the police. They have the money to pay for the damages, they promise. It turns out that they don’t have any car insurance.
What does this mean for you? Most people will assume that it means they are up the creek without a paddle, and that there is nothing that they can do but suck it up and pay for their car to be fixed. And pray that they don’t have whip-lash or any other injuries. And if you end up in the hospital and your car is a total write-off? You may think that there’s still nothing that you can do, but there is.
As with most things, prevention is the best treatment. There are certain kinds of car insurance that you can get to protect yourself in the case of an accident with an uninsured motorist who’s at fault. In some states uninsured motorist (UM) insurance is mandatory, which means that your insurance will cover you for any physical damage you sustain during the accident. If you are injured this type of insurance will make sure that you don’t have to pay your medical expenses out of pocket. But it only covers you; it doesn’t take care of any damage to your car. However, collision insurance does. This additional insurance means that if you are involved in an accident with an uninsured driver and the accident is their fault, your own insurance will cover any expenses associated with your car.
But what happens if you don’t have any of the above insurance? Does it mean there’s nothing that you can do? Certainly not. But from the moment that you find out the other driver is uninsured there are things you need to do to make sure that you can try to get them to pay for your car and your injuries.
Regardless of what they tell you, you have to call the police – even if it’s a minor fender-bender. The police will file a report, giving you an important paper trail. If the other driver convinces you not to call the police and promises to pay for your damages, they could very well claim later that they were never in an accident with you. And then what? You don’t have any proof and it’ll be very hard, if not impossible, to get them to pay.
If you think you may have been injured, even if it isn’t obvious, head to a hospital or doctor to get checked out. Once again, this gives you a paper trail in case an injury pops up later.
If you are lucky, the uninsured driver will pay for your car to get fixed and your medical bills without any fuss or muss. If this is not the case then you will need to get a lawyer to file a car accident lawsuit. Besides having to pay you back, some states will even suspend their license until they pay you the full amount.
Getting into a car accident is very scary and stressful. Finding out that the other driver, who is at fault, is uninsured is even more stressful. But thankfully there are things you can do both before the accident and after to make sure that the costs you end up with are covered.
About the author: Kitty Vogen is an insurance writer who covers many different topics from the basics of completing an auto accident claim to the nuances of selecting car rental insurance.