Car crashes can be quite expensive. They can cause severe damage to vehicles that render them unsafe for use. They can also put people in the hospital with injuries ranging from limb loss to brain injuries.
Dealing with the aftermath of a collision often forces someone to file an insurance claim. The party with property damage expenses and significant injuries can file a request for liability coverage using the policy of the driver who was to blame for the wreck. Unfortunately, not every driver in Connecticut carries the insurance required by the law.
What happens if someone ends up seriously injured by a driver without proper insurance coverage?
Uninsured drivers are a common hazard
Just because people know the law does not automatically mean they intend to comply with it. The failure to maintain proper liability coverage is a common issue in Connecticut. Research looking at the number of car insurance claims involving uninsured drivers shows that Connecticut is relatively average.
It isn’t among the best states for insurance coverage or the states where people are most likely to encounter uninsured drivers. Figures from 2022 show that roughly 10.4% of drivers may lack insurance at any given time. When one of those uninsured drivers causes a crash, the other people involved in the wreck must often cope with the consequences. Without liability coverage, many people have few options for paying their expenses.
Filing a personal injury lawsuit might be the only reasonable solution. The driver who caused the crash may have to accept direct financial responsibility due to their lack of insurance coverage. Those without the personal resources to consistently carry insurance may also lack the income or assets necessary to directly compensate people for a collision.
In some cases, it may also be possible to hold a third party accountable for the crash. If issues such as bad vehicle design may have contributed to the wreck, then a business could have a degree of liability for the collision.
People involved in crashes caused by uninsured drivers may ultimately benefit from exploring every potential source of compensation. Realizing that uninsured drivers are a safety hazard may help people in Connecticut better respond to a situation that leaves them grappling with significant injuries. Those who take legal action after a car crash caused by another’s negligence can potentially limit the economic losses they must absorb due, sometimes in more ways than one, to the failure of another party to comply with the law.