Many people in Nevada think of their car insurance as a frustrating financial obligation, not a crucial form of personal protection. People tend to overestimate their driving skills and to assume that the worst situations won’t happen to them.
Some drivers in Nevada are fortunate enough to perpetually avoid collisions, but many are not that lucky. Thousands of people get hurt every year in collisions somewhere in Nevada, at which point that mandatory insurance becomes a very important form of financial protection.
Obviously, your coverage is crucial if you are the one at fault for a crash because it will pay for the expenses other people experience because of the wreck. How does your insurance policy protect you after a crash where another driver was the one at fault?
It can help if they are uninsured
You can add extra coverage to your policy that can help protect you from uninsured drivers. If the driver who hits you leaves the scene of the crash or if they admit after running a red light and breaking your leg that they don’t have insurance, your uninsured motorist coverage will kick in and help protect you. You can rely on this coverage to reimburse you for the same basic expenses that liability coverage would protect you from, such as hospital bills, vehicle repair expenses and lost wages.
You can also choose to add underinsured motorist protection to cover you in the event of a crash with a driver who has insurance but not very much. If you suffer a catastrophic injury, like damage to your spinal cord, that extra coverage could pay any cost beyond what the other policy will pay. Collision coverage could also help protect you when there are more expensive repairs than coverage available through the other driver’s policy will cover.
It is important to understand that making a claim against your coverage can increase what you pay in the future even if you were not to blame for the crash that led to the insurance claim. In some cases, pursuing a personal injury lawsuit against the other driver or against a third party with some liability for the wreck could be a better financial choice than using your own insurance coverage.
Making smart choices about how you cover the costs of a serious motor vehicle collision can affect your financial stability for years to come.