Imagine driving down the road with six other cars around you. Of those drivers, how many would you expect to have auto insurance? According to a recent study none of those six drivers around you will have any form of car insurance. As you read this last sentence, I want you to take a moment and think back to the last time you renewed your auto insurance policy. Did it include coverage for an uninsured motorist? If you can’t remember call your insurance company right now and make sure that you are covered, I’ll wait.

Now that you are covered, I’ll continue.

Auto insurance is compulsory in every single state, except New Hampshire, so it should come as a surprise that an estimated 13.8% of motorists in the U.S. do not have insurance. That number is even higher here in Washington.  At about 16%, that means that nearly one out of every six Washington drivers is uninsured; for every six to seven car accidents in Washington, one of them, on average, was caused by an uninsured driver so the drivers of the other vehicles will have no insurance company to collect from.  Ensuring that their own policies include adequate uninsured motorist coverage would be one way for Washington drivers to mitigate this possibility.  Nevertheless, in difficult economic times, many motorists will feel that they need to stick to the basic liability insurance that is required under Washington law.

Even though it is illegal to drive without insurance, most states do not have laws that are strict enough to actually worry drivers. Take Mississippi for example, when police pull a car over they cannot force the driver to show proof of insurance, that’s not part of the law, so police have absolutely no way to determine whether or not the driver has coverage.

On the other side is Massachusetts, where drivers are required to show proof of insurance before they can register their car. Massachusetts has the lowest rates of uninsured motorists with only 4% driving without coverage, in Mississippi 28% of drivers are uninsured.

As the economy continues in a downward spiral, the amount of uninsured drivers continues to steadily climb. According to the Insurance Research Council, the rate of uninsured motorists has moved hand in hand with the unemployment rate. Most people that drive without insurance do so because they can’t afford insurance, and many more do it because they have a poor driving record and don’t want to pay the high premiums. But if you are one of those without insurance what would you prefer: paying $1,000 a year for insurance or being hit with a lien of $250,000 because you caused a serious accident and didn’t have the insurance to pay for it?

As a Seattle personal injury attorney I know that car insurance is one of those things that you can’t just decide to not have. Just as you can’t drive down the road without gas in your car, you can’t get behind the wheel without first purchasing insurance, unless of course you live in New Hampshire. Think about who is going to pay for your medical bills and wage loss when you are injured in an accident. Auto insurance is not an optional monthly expense; don’t wait until it is too late.