What Happens If I Am Involved in a Crash with an Uninsured or Underinsured Driver?

When involved in a car crash, you may wonder what to do if the driver of the other vehicle does not have insurance or if they are underinsured. Unfortunately, this is a common problem. While motorists must have auto insurance to legally drive their vehicles on the road, some choose to drive illegally without insurance.

Other motorists may have the bare minimum insurance plan that does not provide much coverage at all. When you get into a car accident with one of these drivers and they caused the accident, you might worry that you will be the one who has to foot the bill for your medical expenses and the damage to your vehicle. However, that is not always the case. It’s important to know what to do when you are involved in a crash with an uninsured or underinsured driver.

Contact your insurance company

The very first thing you should do when you find out that the other person involved in the accident is underinsured or uninsured is to contact your insurance company. If you have the extra coverage included on your insurance plan, the insurance company that you have selected will likely cover the cost of the damages. Your insurance company may foot the bill for damages to your vehicle and any medical bills that you have incurred from the injuries sustained during the accident. The exact amount of money provided by your insurance company will depend primarily on the level of coverage you have.

If you have collision coverage, your insurance company should cover the cost of the repairs to your vehicle after an accident with an uninsured driver. However, this would not cover medical expenses. You would likely still need to pay a deductible, but the insurance company would take care of a large portion of the total cost of the vehicle repairs.

Consider filing a claim

Depending on how bad the car accident was, you may be eligible to file a personal injury action against the driver. Some states make it impossible to file a lawsuit against the driver because of the no-fault rule. However, the state of Oklahoma is an at-fault state. Because it is an at-fault state, you can proceed with hiring a lawyer to help you with the process of filing a case against the at-fault driver to seek compensation for vehicle repairs and hospital visits due to your injuries.

After an accident with an uninsured or underinsured driver in Oklahoma, you are probably feeling frustrated and concerned about the expenses that are adding up. Know that you should not have to foot the bill when you are not the one who caused an accident. At Cunningham & Mears, we can help. Call us at 405-232-1212 or send us your information via our contact form.