Drivers Without Insurance Should Be Banned From The Road

My Seattle-Tacoma Encounter

Several years ago, as I was driving along the middle lane of the freeway between Seattle and Tacoma, I glanced in my rear-view mirror and noticed a car speedily approaching from behind.

“Surely, she will slow down soon?" I thought. feeling tension begin to mount as I looked to either side and saw no escape, should she fail to find her brake in time.

I braced myself just before she plowed into me, knocking me through a momentary space between two cars and I zig-zagged to a rugged stop on the right shoulder of the road. Surprisingly, she followed me and jumped out of her car, running up to my window and asking, “Are you all right? I hope I didn’t hurt you."

Physically, I felt pretty good, considering the force of the crash, but my mental state was something else. I struggled to stay nice and assured her that I was okay.

“I am s-o-o-o very sorry," she said. “I must have hit the accelerator instead of the brake." Well, I am a firm believer that everyone makes mistakes, but didn’t want to be around when she made her next one. Then she launched into a story about how the car didn’t even belong to her—it was a friend’s—but she was sure the friend had insurance which would take care of the damage to both cars. Mine was a fairly old Volkswagon Camper, but I loved it, warts and all, and it really hurt to see the whole back caved in like that. Hers was a brand new, bright, shiny, red sedan.

She willingly exchanged names and addresses and gave me the registration, so I could copy the owners information down. However, there was no insurance paper to be found.

Since we had to get off the freeway, I told her I would go on to Tacoma to report the accident and that my agent would be in touch with the owner of the car, and possibly with her. She was agreeable and left.

My poor vehicle limped badly, but made it into Tacoma where I filed the report and went over to a repair shop. They didn’t have anyone there to work on it, but one of the guys did pull on the caved in part a bit so the car was more driveable, and I headed on home. (300 miles away.)

I couldn’t wait to talk to my insurance agent and get things started for the red car owner to take care of my repairs. It sounded pretty simple to me.

Unfortunately, the red car owner didn’t have any insurance, and, in fact, had not even made any payments on her car for several months. The car dealer had been trying to find her so they could repossess the car. Since Oregon, where I live, requires all drivers to have insurance, I figured that someone would have to pay for the damage to my car.

Someone did all right. It was me. I paid $300 deductible and my insurance company paid the rest. My agent made a flimsy attempt to track down the owner of the other car, but said I might as well forget it and fork over the deductable. Pretty sad, don’t you think?

At least I learned to be very, very careful when driving in the state of Washington, and to get to know my new agent better than I knew the first one. I wanted one that would not only provide the least expensive auto insurance, Automobile Insurance but one that would would try to get the best coverage for his customers.

I don’t know a lot about Geico except for that adorable little lizard they use in their TV ads, but a recent news release put out about them contains a whole list of stuff car owners can do to reduce the chances of having their car broken into or stolen, including things like parking in busy areas whenever possible, not carrying your car title in your car, and having your VIN number etched on the windows of your car. That last one was something I’d never have thought of, but it makes sense that thieves might consider having to replace all the windows a little more expense and trouble than it is worth and pass over your car.

There were more suggestions in the news release that you can read for yourself, but I think they sound like a company worth investigating. I hear their prices are very competitive, too. Now, if they would just give me one of those little talking lizards for signing up, I would probably be first in line.