What if You Hit Someone Who Does Not Have Car Insurance
Your own insurance, not theirs, usually ends up paying for the damage.
Your policy pays, if you have the right coverage
If you hit someone who doesn't have car insurance, their lack of coverage doesn't change what you owe for the damage you caused. What changes is who pays for your own car and any injuries you have. That depends on what you carry.
Collision coverage pays to repair or replace your car no matter who caused the accident. Medical payments coverage or personal injury protection, depending on your state, pays for your injuries. Without either, you're paying out of pocket for your own side of the accident, even though the crash was your fault.
What coverage you already have
Liability coverage, the kind every state requires, pays for the other driver's damage and injuries. It doesn't do anything for you. If the other driver has no insurance, that detail doesn't matter here at all, because your liability coverage was never going to pay you back anyway.
Collision coverage is what pays to fix or replace your car after a crash you caused. If you dropped collision at some point to save money, this is the situation where that decision costs you directly.
Medical payments coverage or personal injury protection covers your own injuries regardless of fault. Some states require PIP, others don't, so check your declarations page to see what you actually carry.
If you have both collision and medical coverage, the other driver's lack of insurance mostly becomes a paperwork detail. If you don't, you'll want to know that before you're standing in a body shop parking lot.
What your state requires and allows
Some states require insurers to offer uninsured motorist property damage coverage, which can pay for your car with a lower deductible than collision, or no deductible at all. Whether this applies to you depends on your state and whether you bought that coverage, so check your policy or ask your insurer directly.
A few states also have no-fault rules that change how claims get paid after any accident, regardless of who was insured. If you're not sure whether your state is no-fault, that's worth confirming before you assume how a claim will go.
Your insurer may also go after the uninsured driver to recover what it paid out, through a process called subrogation. If that succeeds, you could get your deductible back. It's not something you control or can count on, but it's worth asking your insurer whether they pursue it.
Questions people ask about this
Will my rates go up if I hit an uninsured driver?
If the accident was your fault, it can affect your rate the same way any at-fault accident would. The other driver's insurance status doesn't change that. Ask your insurer how an at-fault claim affects your specific policy, since this varies by insurer.
Do I have to pay the other driver myself if they have no insurance?
You don't pay them directly. Your liability coverage pays for their damage and injuries if you're at fault, the same as it would for any other driver. Their lack of insurance affects what they can collect from you if you're not covered, not what you owe through your policy.
Should I call the police even if the damage looks minor?
It's worth doing regardless of who has insurance, because a police report documents what happened and who was at fault. Without one, it can be harder for either insurer to sort out the claim, especially if the other driver's story changes later.
What if the uninsured driver was also at fault?
Fault is determined by what happened in the accident, not by who has insurance. If the other driver caused the crash, your insurer still needs to establish that through the claim process, often using the police report and any other evidence.
Will dropping collision coverage save me money if I'm a careful driver?
It can lower your premium, but it also means you'd pay out of pocket to repair or replace your car after any at-fault accident, uninsured driver or not. Whether that trade makes sense depends on your car's value and what you could afford to pay yourself.
If this has you rethinking what your policy actually covers, it's worth comparing options before your next renewal.
Pull out your declarations page this week and check three things: whether you have collision coverage, whether you have medical payments or PIP, and whether you have uninsured motorist property damage. If any of those are missing and you'd be stuck paying out of pocket after an at-fault accident, call your insurer and ask what it would cost to add them. If you're ever in this situation, get a police report regardless of how minor the damage looks, and get the other driver's name and license information even though you know they're uninsured. That information still matters for your claim.
