If you were on the fence about adding uninsured motorist coverage to your insurance policy, now is the time to act! The economic uncertainty posed by the COVID19 threat could lead to a sizeable increase in the number of uninsured drivers on the road.
Coronavirus has hit the United States economy hard. There are so many people who are simply not earning a living right now. Companies closed, workers forced to stay home, or worse, workers being laid off. Money is objectively tight right now, and when money is tight, people take a close look at their finances and try to make cuts to their budget where they can. One item that may fall on the chopping block for many people is their car insurance policy.
If you are not driving to work anymore, and cannot go to the movies, parks, or other public places with the exception of the grocery store or pharmacy, you may only be using your car once or twice every week for a short amount of time. If money is tight enough that a person is struggling to pay for basic living expenses like rent, utilities, and food, that person may find it prudent to stop paying for an insurance policy on a car they never use. It would make sense to stop paying for car insurance if you were not driving the car at all, however, using it once a week to drive to the grocery store means you are still using it.
People may think that driving once a week is seldom enough to justify dropping their insurance for a little while to save some money. They may be overconfident in their own driving abilities, and think they can get away without having insurance if they just take extra care when driving that one time a week to the store that is just around the corner. Herein lies the problem for the rest of the drivers on the road. All drivers are human and capable of making mistakes no matter how careful they are being. You cannot presume that you by yourself are able to avoid all accidents on your own. Everyone has a lot on their mind right now and it would be easy to become distracted for a split second that happens to be long enough to run a stop sign or turn left too closely to that oncoming car.
At the end of the day, many people are hurting financially right now, and may decide to forgo their car insurance for the time being. Although it is against the law, people are going to do what they think they need to do in order to survive; it is why uninsured motorist coverage exists in the first place. With the recent economic downturn, one can expect more and more people to be taking that chance to drive without insurance. Without your own UM coverage, you could find yourself with a totaled out car that you cannot pay to replace on your own. Less cars on the road means less accidents, but it does not mean no accidents. Protect yourself from the financial hardship that would come from an uninsured driver.
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