Uninsured Motorist Coverage
It is estimated that 15% of all accidents occur with an uninsured driver. UM – Uninsured Motorists, and UIM – Underinsured Motorists coverage, are not required on your policy but they provide important protection. The coverage is so important that we require a signature to reject the coverage or to buy less UM/UIM coverage than you have Bodily Injury coverage on your issued policy. I’ll cover UIM on a separate tab.
First and foremost, uninsured motorist coverage protects you from the injuries you sustain in an auto accident when the other driver is determined to have been at fault more than 50%. When the driver hits and leaves the scene most companies consider the driver who flees to have been responsible for the accident unless the facts are clearly to the contrary. As such, the uninsured motorist coverage responds to mostly the same types of events as would be covered by bodily injury liability coverage but there is one huge difference: Uninsured motorist coverage pays a benefit to you or your family member when the other driver is negligent and uninsured, or underinsured (as the case may be). If a driver hits and leaves the scene we generally consider this driver as the negligent driver (unless clear facts suggest the opposite). When a negligent driver hits, leaves the scene, or is uninsured, you are permitted to seek recovery for serious injuries from your own policy. The uninsured motorist coverage provides this protection. Absent the Uninsured Motorist protection of your policy, significant injuries, lost wages, and considerable expense may be your responsibility to absorb when you are an innocent victim in an auto crash caused by another driver.
Uninsured Motorists (UM) coverage applies in instances when the other driver is found to have been responsible for the accident and you sustain significant injury that would permit pursuit of the driver in a court for recovery of the costs of your loss for a bodily injury and significant injury including pain and suffering. The other driver must be uninsured. If the driver hits and leaves the scene of the accident, and is unidentified, the presumption is that they are responsible except when evidence may exonerate them from responsibility. To recover losses you make the UM claim with your own insurance company.
The unintended consequence of an auto injury to you or your family living with you with an uninsured or underinsured driver is that you will not only suffer the injury, but quite possibly, the inability to collect for the loss of income, loss of function, or the additional costs you will be forced to incur to accommodate recovery or restoration of normalcy to your life. Even if you have health coverage there are many costs that are not covered, especially when incapacity or loss of bodily function is a part of your life after an auto accident.
