Your car insurance helps protect you against the liability that comes from operating a big, heavy piece of machinery in public.
If you cause a crash, the property damage and injuries that result from the wreck could potentially have catastrophic financial consequences for you. The other driver could hold you accountable for the cost to buy a new vehicle or for a lifetime of medical expenses or lost wages if their injuries are serious enough.
You can count on your own policy to protect you from those kinds of risks if you cause a crash, but that also means you are dependent on the other driver’s coverage when they are the ones at fault. Will the other driver’s insurance be enough to cover all of your losses related to a crash?
Georgia’s mandatory insurance may not cover everything
Drivers have to carry a minimum amount of insurance required by state law. Specifically, they need to have at least $25,000 worth of property damage liability coverage.
They should also have bodily injury liability coverage that pays for both medical expenses if someone gets hurt and their lost wages if they cannot work because of the injury. A driver only has to have $25,000 worth of bodily injury protection if one person gets hurt or $50,000 worth of protection when two or more people suffer injuries.
If your injury is something severe like a brain or spinal cord injury, your costs could be many times higher than the coverage the other driver has. Learning more about insurance can help you take the right steps after a serious car wreck in Georgia.