A driver can do everything right, like maintain their car, pay their car note and insurance, but still end up getting the short end of the stick if someone else decides to slack.
Recently, TikTok user Gimoneey (@gimoneey) found out the hard way when another driver, lacking both a driver’s license and insurance, crashed into her car. Now, she’s stuck paying for the damage even though she did everything right.
In a video viewed over 672,000 times, Gimoneey flips through her police report before tossing it over her shoulder.
A text overlay reads: “Me reading the police report from my accident that was 0% my fault while I’m stuck paying for my car damage and losing my car’s value ’cause she didn’t want to have insurance or a license.”
Why she’s stuck paying
With rising insurance prices, it can be tempting to skimp on coverage, but the decision could end up costing you thousands.
Unless you live in the one of the 12 no-fault states, which still holds uninsured drivers accountable for damages and injuries, it’s pretty likely that you’ll end up covering the cost of repairs in some way if you don’t have solid coverage.
The cheapest insurance is liability insurance. This is the most common and is required by all states. Unfortunately, it only pays for another driver’s damage, which means that if the other driver has no insurance then you’re out of luck.
Now, you can take a driver to court, win, and have a court order the other driver to cover the costs, but the burden still lies on you to get the money.
The best way to protect against this scenario is comprehensive and collision insurance. Most people call it full-coverage. However, Progressive Auto Insurance explains that full-coverage is a combination of comprehensive and collision insurance and other coverage mandated by the state, as well as optional additions like rental-car insurance.
Collision insurance will cover damage to your car “due to accidents and incidents out of your control.” Comprehensive insurance covers car theft and damages caused by anything other than a car accident.
It gets more complicated
According to Nerdwallet, there are multiple types of car insurance on top of liability, collision, and comprehensive.
Personal Injury and medical payments coverage: This insurance “covers you and your passengers’ medical expenses after a car accident no matter who was at fault.” Personal injury protection can also “cover funeral costs, child care or last wages” due to injury.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage: This insurance “pays for expenses that result from an uninsured driver hitting you.”
Gap insurance: This insurance is handy if you took out a loan to get the car. In case of an accident, the insurance will cover the difference between what would be covered by comprehensive or collision insurance and how much is still owed on the loan.
What do viewers suggest?
In the video’s comments section, multiple users suggested she sue and offered personal stories of similar situations.
“This happened to me in 2015. You have to sue your insurance hope this helps,” one advised.
“It’s called sue them,” another agreed.
However, other users pointed out that suing probably won’t help.
“For y’all in here talking about sue them, you can only sue someone for what they have. If they can’t afford insurance I’m sure they don’t have much to take for a lawsuit,” a user remarked.
“Just happened to me last week. And they get to walk away scot-free,” a third lamented.
@gimoneey Lifes just great
♬ original sound – ★
The Daily Dot reached out to Gimoneey via TikTok comments.
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