5.5 Million Uninsured Motorists in Washington State

The Daily News has a good article about how much uninsured drivers cost us all.

If you carry uninsured motorist (UM) coverage then at least you can have your insurance company protect you if you are hit. Without UM coverage you have to pay your own medical bills and fix your own car - or drive around with a damaged car.

To get their money back, insurance companies go after uninsured drivers in a variety of ways. They may try to garnish wages or place liens on their assets. What would you do? You could sue the person, but if they could not afford insurance, how much money do you think they could give you?

The national average of uninsured motorists is 14 percent, according to the Insurance Research Council (IRC). In Washington, the estimate is 18 percent.

Based on the number of registered vehicles in the state of Washington — more than 5.5 million, according to the IRC — nearly a million uninsured cars travel Washington’s roads.

Insured Washington drivers pay nearly $80 million a year in premiums to cover the costs of uninsured drivers, according to the Insurance Service Office, a national risk analysis company.

more to come…