Car insurance is a basic expectation for motorists in Georgia. State law requires that they carry liability coverage to pay for property damage costs they may cause and also any injuries they cause to others due to unsafe decisions at the wheel.
Of course, getting people to follow those requirements can be a real challenge. Young adults who don’t see the risks inherent in their behaviors and adults who are strapped for cash may choose to drive without active insurance coverage, effectively letting everyone else assume the risk generated by that choice.
A small but concerning number of drivers don’t have coverage
It can be very difficult to track the rate of uninsured driving, as people aren’t typically keen to admit that they have violated the law. However, it is possible to look at the number of registered vehicles in the state and compare that with the number of insurance policies that companies underwrite.
Georgia is relatively average when it comes to the percentage of drivers who operate a vehicle without legally-mandated insurance. It ranks 23th on the list created using 2019 insurance information. Researchers estimate that 12.4% of Georgia drivers do not have proper coverage at any given moment. That’s more than one in ten drivers! Even if other states may have rates approaching 30%, having a roughly one in 10 chance of not being able to utilize liability insurance after a crash is a serious concern.
What happens after a crash without liability coverage
Those involved in a collision caused by someone without proper insurance typically have two options. If they have added supplemental insurance to their policies, including uninsured motorist protection, they can potentially use their own policy to cover certain expenses.
Many drivers instead seek to take legal action against the party at fault for a crash. Civil litigation is a reasonable response to someone violating the state law and causing financial hardship for others. There are personal injury and wrongful death statutes that make a lawsuit possible when someone causes a crash and cannot pay for victims’ losses.