Many drivers in North Carolina take for granted that insurance will pay their bills after a car crash. However, insurance does not guarantee that you will avoid financial losses, nor is it a sure thing after even the most severe crash caused by another driver.
After all, you depend on the other driver’s coverage for your protection. Although state law does require that everybody carries an insurance policy on their vehicle, state law also says that you shouldn’t text while driving or exceed the posted speed limit.
Just as people violate traffic laws, so too do they violate the law requiring insurance on their vehicles. Are you at risk of a crash caused by someone without insurance?
North Carolina has fewer uninsured drivers than other states
North Carolina actually has a decent rate of drivers maintaining insurance after registering their vehicles, especially when compared with the rest of the country. Based on data from 2019, only 7.4% of drivers in North Carolina don’t have insurance on their vehicles.
That low rate makes North Carolina 41st in the nation for its overall rate of uninsured drivers. That’s less than one-quarter the rate of uninsured drivers that there are on the roads in Mississippi, whose 29.4% of drivers going around uninsured gives it the top place among all the states.
Of course, for a small percentage of unlucky drivers, the person at fault for their crash will be someone without coverage.
What happens in the aftermath of an uninsured collision?
When the other driver does not have an active insurance policy, you may need to make a claim against your own policy. If you invested in more than the minimum coverage required by state law, you might have uninsured motorist protection or collision coverage that can help pay your costs.
Without that extra insurance, your best option may be to bring a civil lawsuit against the other driver. Provided that they broke the law or did something very negligent at the wheel, you may have grounds for a personal injury lawsuit that will compensate you for your vehicle repair costs, medical bills and lost wages. Understanding what protects you after a car crash in North Carolina will help you handle the fallout of a recent wreck.
