Why is driving without insurance wrong?

Question

if you are responsible for an accident, can't you still be made to pay up by law?

Answer 1

Because its the law. Why is it a law ? Because if you were to hurt or kill someone, you need an insurance policy to help pay for it.

Answer 2

well you got a good point there........we are not required to have health insurance.........but you do pay you medical bills...

Answer 3

Yes, you would still be made to pay for it, but why would anyone want to pay all that money out of pocket?  Insurance is there to protect you and the person you get in to an accident with.  

I don't think it's an issue of morals.  It's just important that you prepare for the worst and don't get yourself in to a situation where you can't afford to fix your or anyone else's car after an accident.

Answer 4

It is the LAW that you drive with Insurance, If you have an accident and you are not insured you can  lose your house..

If you live with mommy and daddy they Can lose their house..

You do not have the right to be self insured it is the LAW that you are insured or you will lose your license ( suspension)

It is ILLEGAL

It is ILLEGAL

Oh yeah one more thing

IT IS ILLEGAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 5

because then you won't be responsible for your actions.  if you damage something than you can just say "im poor i cant afford to pay for the damages ive done"  with insurance the insurance will cover it first, then you pay the insurance company back if anything like that happens.

Answer 6

You have the right in the U.S. to be 'self-insured' -- it requires a huge security bond but you still have that option. On the moral aspect, shouldn't everyone be held responsible for their actions? If you drive without insurance and accidentally force a bus load of kids off the road which results in 30 trips to the ER for x-rays, tests and overnight stays, not to mention a totaled bus worth $40,000, how could you hope to pay such an enormous bill unless you were rich (or had insurance)? This sort of thing happens daily and parents and taxpayers have to foot the bill when the deadbeats can't pay. What good is a legal judgment if the person that caused the accident has no money, job or assets?

Answer 7

It's a very simple answer.

Because of the risk of causing more damage than you can afford to fix.

Answer 8

If you were responsible for the accident and did not have insurance the other party or their insurers on their behalf can, and probably  would, sue you.  That being the case you seem to think that there is morally nothing wrong with driving without insurance - if i read your question correctly.

OK, let us take a only too possible scenario.  You a 17 year old first year appentice earning peanuts, you bought your first car recently, it had a couple of months tax and mot on it and you did not bother [or maybe could not afford] to insure it.  You are having a bit of a race with a mate, go through a Red light and straight into the side of a new 40 grand Lexus. One of the other cars' passengers is injured, as is someone in your car, and both cars are write off's.  You are liable for the lot, perhaps you can explain how you, a 17 year old apprentice, would be proposing to pay for the Lexus and two peoples' injuries!

Does that illustrate why, apart from the law, driving without insurance is wrong?

Answer 9

How can you possibly be made to pay damages if you don't have insurance, and don't own property?  Think about it, somebody hits you and you end up with untold thousands of dollars in damage to your new car, you are injured and receive a $250,000 hospital bill, after which you are in a wheelchair for life and unable to resume your career.  The person who hit you, is driving a K-Car, the most expensive vehicle he can afford, working part-time at Wendy's, and supporting a child and pregnant-again  girlfriend.  He is living in subsidized housing.  How can he be made to pay, and what assets could be seized to ameloirate the damages caused?

If he has no insurance, and you have no insurance, you have nothing to sue for, and you end up on welfare.

It is possible to do damage so great a person cannot live long enough to pay it off.  There is a girl in BC who will forever be paying off a $3,000,000.00 liability lawsuit that she had insufficient insurance to cover.

One of my bad dreamsused to be causing an accident, having no insurance, and losing a suit for $2,000,00.00, then winning $2,000,000.00 in a lottery and having it seized before I could even buy a cup of coffee with it.

Answer 10

I had an accident many years ago whilst driving with no licence or insurance.

Luckly no one was seriously injured, and the guy I pranged was not insured for the vehicle he was driving. So I got off quite lightly with a hefty fine and a ban, 8 points on a non existing licence, aswell as having to pay an element of compensation to the other party.

I was only too glad that the other party was not carrying children or some frail old lady as the crash was pretty bad.

Had I of killed or injured anyone, the insurance would have gone some way to help those who have to live with a seriously disabilty or a least go some way towards helping those who survive anyone killed.

I was in no position, and still aren't, to pay for anything like the quantity the insurers pay out for such a small premium by comparison.

If you are stupidly rich then why bother, you may ask, but for most of us it is a much needed necessity.

Answer 11

It isn't.  No state requires you to have a policy through an insurance company, but all states have financial responsibility laws on the books.  This means if you put enough money on deposit with the state, you can be self insured.

Most people meet financial responsibility by having an insurance policy, but it isn't wrong to drive without it as long as you are legally self insured.  many big corporations are self insured, as are the motor pools for most state vehicles.

Answer 12

I've been asking this question for years, and I can never get a straight answer either.

This is what people say to me.

1) Because if you get in an accident you're screwed!

Well oh well, it should be my choice whether or not to take that risk.

2) Because if you hit someone else, your insurance will pay for it, and if you don't have insurance then you can't pay it.

Why can't THEIR insurance pay for it? I thought that's what insurance was for, in case your car gets messed up. Those companies get SOOO much money, it shouldn't matter who caused the accident, they have the money to fix it.

So I think it's just greediness. Insurance companies don't to pay for your car to get fixed if it's not your fault. Which I guess is the "right" way to handle things, whoever is at fault should pay. But it just makes things SO much more confusing.

Plus it's stupid because, that way, If a person who has insurance and gets hit by a person who doesn't have insurance, who gets the bad end of the deal? The law-abiding citizen WITH insurance, because now no one will pay to fix their car. It makes things really unfair, especially for people who DO have insurance, and it shouldn't be like that.

I think that when you have insurance it should cover YOU. If you mess up YOUR car, they insurance will fix YOUR car. That way, if you choose to drive without insurance, the only person you're putting at risk is yourself. If you get into a wreck no matter who caused it, insurance will pay to fix YOUR car, and the other person has THEIR insurance to fix theirs.

That would be more fair, so that way only the people without insurance get screwed.

Alas, I know everyone who reads this is going to scoff and say that's a stupid idea, for whatever reason. No one I've ever talked to has agreed with me, but it's just what I think.

Hopefully you find an answer that's not just "It's illegal because it's illegal! Deal with it!" lol.

Answer 13

in new zealand insurance is not compulsory, but imagine this you are the parent of a child who gets run over and severely disabled, that child has become so severely disabled that you have to  constantly care for that child for the rest of its natural life, although money cannot make things right it would pay for additional care for that child, what happens when that child loses its parents and has to support itself. that's why being insured is so important, and you should never drive without legal cover on the vehicle

Answer 14

#1 - it is illegal

#2 - many people just don't have spare thousands of dollars in case of accident.

My wife was in an accident and with-in the first few week, the medical bills were in to tens of thousands of dollars.  And it could have been much worse.

If the other driver didn't have insurance, either we or more likely the hospital or the STATE government will have to step in.

Good luck...

Answer 15

If you did have an accident, and there was a requirement that you to pay the repair on the other persons property, how would you pay? Unless you were rich you would not be able to pay, so the other party would be out of pocket-not really fair is it?

Answer 16

Insurance is for an accident when it occurs.  You can still be sued for the cost of the accident if it is your fault, and you can get a ticket for no insurance on top of that you have to pay as well.

Answer 17

It's totally wrong. Imagine you bang into someone else's car and cause a lot of damage. The poor law abiding person you banged into will have to try to claim on their insurance and lose their no claims and have to pay higher premiums.

You will be fined in court but you'll end up paying 5 pence per week back to the poor driver or something ridiculous.

Answer 18

Dont tell me,     all your accidents are going

to be affordable ones, how very considerate

of you. Please take this idea back to where

you found it, and make sure it has an accident.

( A FATAL ONE)

Answer 19

The logic of it is...  If you wreck a 100,000 pounds Bentley, or a 250,000 pounds Ferrari, how deep are your pockets???

If your driving puts someone in pain, in a wheelchair, or requiring constant medical care for the rest of their life, and unable to work again, how will you pay for that?

Get insurance.  For the car you are driving.  No excuses!

Answer 20

Because the law states you are required to carry insurance. What if you hit a car and injured 2 or 3 people. Do you have the cash to pay their medical bills or fix their vehicle? Do you think they should have to wait while you pay them $50 a week for the next 20 years or something?

Answer 21

OK...it is morally and ethically wrong to drive without coverage to take care of injuries and damage caused by an "at fault" driver. Pretty simple and easy to understand. Too many people simply feel they are exempt from having adequate coverage because they don't want to pay the premiums. You can be made to pay if you don't have coverage, but all too often the amount due is way over any resources they have available. Insurance relieves that concern.

Answer 22

morally, it is wrong because if someone got into an accident without insurance, who would pay for the other person's car and medical bills?  yes the law can make you pay up, but usually this is set up through payment plans and such.  That is mostly because the average person does not have enough liquid assets to pay for these things all at once.  I got in a little fender bender and it cost 1200 dollars to fix my car... imagine how much it would be if the accident was really bad.  Medical bills are very very expensive too, especially ER visits.  My husband cut his leg at work (workers comp covered it) but he saw the bill.  all they did was spray some saline solution on it, then slap some butterfly bandages on it, and the bill was over 400 bucks... now imagine how much that would be if someone needed emergency surgery as well as physical therapy to recoup from the accident... we're talking tens of thousands of dollars, if not more.  I don't know about you, but if someone caused an accident with me and I had all these bills and such, I would not want to wait years and years for them to pay them off... I would want my car fixed ASAP, as well as my medical bills payed as soon as possible.

that's just my opinion though.

edit:

I just read the answer below me that stated insurance should cover your car and no one else's so that people without insurance get screwed... well they do have something called 'uninsured motorist coverage' which will cover your car if you get in an accident with someone without insurance... but you have to pay more and if you file a claim, you have to pay your deductible and your rates will go up... so I still don't think that's fair to people who don't cause accidents.  I pay my insurance to make things right when I eff up... I don't expect them to have to pay if someone else effs up.  That's what they should be paying their insurance for.  How is it fair that I pay X amount of dollars for my insurance and someone hits me and they haven't paid insurance premiums and they don't have to pay squat for my car or medical bills... most people without insurance drive 1000 dollar cars that are easily replaced... so while I have to pay tens of thousands of dollars for my car and medical bills, he only has to go out and buy a new 1000 dollar car.  no, that's not ethical in my opinion.

Answer 23

It isn't wrong.  Not paying for damage you do to others is wrong.  If one has assets and will reimburse damages caused then one doesn't need insurance.  Wisconsin and New Hampshire are good examples.  These two states do not require auto insurance but if in an accident do require a bond sent to the state called financial responsibility.  This bond may then be used to pay for damages they may have caused.  So driving without insurance, while illegal in 48 states is not necessarily "wrong".