Like all insurance policies, you never know when you will need it. Hindsight is 20/20 and the insurance industry would be broke if we all had it. For very little costs, adding uninsured and underinsured motorist protection to your auto insurance provides the extra protection in the event that you get into an accident with someone who either has no insurance or not enough coverage to pay for the damages. But you ask yourself this question��Why must I have coverage to protect myself against someone who doesn�t have insurance? That doesn�t make any sense. Isn�t it the law to have auto insurance on a driven vehicle?� Sure, but life doesn�t work that way. There are people out there that just don�t care and drive without insurance or simply carry the minimum limites to drive.

Imagine getting into an accident, your car is damaged, your incurred bodily injuries and it wasn�t your fault. On the of that, the person that hit you doesn�t have any insurance! What a mess. With uninsured / underinsured motorist protection, all those damages would be paid by your policy up to your policy limits. Now, imagine if the person that hit you was a hit and run motorist. This would be covered as well. Not only will your car be covered, but you and your passengers would receive compensation for lost wages, medical payments and other injury-related losses. Here�s another benefit. As a pedestrian crossing the street and if you get hit by a driver who is uninsured or underinsured, your policy would kick in to cover medical expenses and lost wages.

So why is this coverage so important when everyone by law should have their own insurance? Unfortunately, many drivers carry the minimum limits that would not cover all the damages that could happen in a major accident. In addition, the IRC released a study in 2001 that 14% of all drivers in the United States during 1995-1997 had no auto insurance. What�s even worse is that uninsured drivers cause an increasing number of accidents and have larger claims. The insurance industry officials estimate that these uninsured drivers cause one of every eight serious accidents, a 40% increase over the last decade.

With lax enforcement on these uninsured drivers, we as responsible people must protect ourselves from being hurt financially. It is better to know that if you are ever involved in an accident with an uninsured or underinsured motorist that you, your passengers and your vehicle are protected from all expenses related to lost wages, medical costs, vehicle damage, etc�