Florida’s Uninsured Motorist Epidemic: How
to Protect Yourself
By: Daniel L. Kaufman
Jane Doe was
driving to work one morning when her life changed forever. John Smith drove through a red light and T-boned
Jane’s car, causing her to need multiple surgeries to fix her back, leg, and
ribs. Her doctors’ bills were piling up
and seemed to have no end. To make
matters worse, John only carried Florida’s minimum car insurance requirement,
Personal Injury Protection and Property Damage.
John’s insurance company paid $10,000.00 in Personal Injury Protection
only towards John’s own medical bills and other resulting expenses and did not
cover any of Jane’s injuries or Jane’s bills.
Additionally, Jane’s
insurance company paid the first $10,000.00 of Jane’s medical bills with her no-fault
coverage, also known as Personal Injury Protection. However, Jane’s coverage had exhausted after
$10,000.00, and the other driver, John, did not carry Bodily Injury coverage to
cover injuries caused to other people, such as Jane. What about the other $90,000.00 of medical
bills that Jane was accumulating? What
about all of the future care Jane would need as a result of this accident? What about Jane’s pain and suffering? Luckily, Jane elected to carry Uninsured
Motorist Protection, an optional source of insurance coverage. Jane’s Uninsured Motorist Protection compensated
her for what John should have with his own Bodily Injury coverage, which he
legally chose not to carry.
Getting car
insurance isn’t fun. It can be costly,
complicated, and time consuming. Do you
know what kind of coverage you need? Do you understand the different kinds of
coverage? Do you know how much to get? Do you know what you’re signing? Florida requires motor vehicle drivers to
carry an insurance policy with only Personal Injury Protection and
Property Damage. If you do not have
Uninsured Motorist Protection and the at-fault driver has no Bodily Injury
coverage, there is no money available to cover your remaining bills, future
bills, and pain and suffering.
Florida is
notorious for drivers who don’t carry insurance. A 2012 study conducted by the Insurance
Information Institute showed that Florida ranks #2 in the country for uninsured
motorists at an estimated 23% of drivers.[1] This statistic does not include drivers that only
have Florida’s required minimal no-fault coverage. As a result, it is important that you add
Uninsured Motorist Protection to your car insurance policy. Uninsured Motorist Protection is not only
triggered by accidents with uninsured drivers, it can also cover you should the
at-fault driver have low Bodily Injury coverage. While it will cost extra to
add this coverage to your policy, it is very much worth it. This coverage can protect you and your family
in the future from financial and emotional hardship should you ever find
yourself in Jane Doe’s position. Add
Uninsured Motorist Protection to your policy today.
[1]
Insurance Information Institute, Inc. "Compulsory Auto/Uninsured
Motorists." III. Insurance Information Institute, Inc., n.d. Web.
17 Dec. 2015.
http://www.iii.org/issue-update/compulsory-auto-uninsured-motorists
