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How does insurance help you after an Alabama car crash?

On Behalf of | Mar 24, 2022 | Traffic Accidents |

To the average adult in Alabama, driving is just part of daily life. You need to take the kids to school in the morning and go to work. Your vehicle makes grocery shopping easier and helps you seek out medical care quickly if something happens to you or a family member.

The convenience of motor vehicles is largely offset by the risk that they pose to the public. Simply put, every time you get behind the wheel or climb into someone else’s vehicle, you have a minor degree of risk of getting into a car crash.

Many drivers will go years without experiencing a serious collision and will therefore not know quite what to do when one does happen. You probably know that insurance pays for the bills after a car crash in Alabama and that every driver has to carry insurance. How does that system protect you after a crash?

Liability coverage protects everyone involved

Alabama requires that drivers pay for liability insurance on their motor vehicles. At the very least, drivers need to carry $25,000 worth of property damage coverage and another $25,000 worth of injury coverage. If a crash hurts several people, the bodily injury coverage will double to $50,000 for everyone in the crash to split.

That coverage protects the people not at fault for the crash by paying their costs and the person who caused the collision by limiting their financial liability. They won’t have to cover costs themselves if their insurance company pays.

Fault determines which policy applies

You may have a policy that covers up to a quarter of a million dollars in medical injuries, but that won’t help you if the other driver causes the wreck. You depend on the coverage of the driver at fault for the collision unless you invest in extra coverage on your insurance policy.

Underinsured driver protections and collision coverage can cover costs that exceed the insurance policy carried by the other driver. Of course, not everyone invests in that coverage, which might mean that you use the full amount of insurance available and still have thousands of dollars in property damage costs or lost wages.

Those with crash-related losses that exceed the insurance available may have grounds to file a civil lawsuit against the driver who caused the crash. Even if insurance is theoretically enough, you may have to engage in aggressive negotiations to get the maximum amount of compensation table.

Learning a bit about Alabama car insurance will help prepare you in case you ever get into a motor vehicle collision.