You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy.™
Uninsured drivers.
Driving in America today is like throwing dice on a craps table.
“Yo Eleven. Daddy needs a new spare tire.”
But instead of chips you are gambling your life, or the very least the cost of your car.
How many of us would play Black Jack and put $10,000 on the table, on one hand?
Nobody.
But that is essentially what we do every day we get behind the wheel of a car in this country.
With the border crossings of illegals coming to work the fields and the economy sinking like a submarine into a bog, people just don’t carry insurance like they use to. They can’t afford to. There’s no real penalty if they don’t.
Mandatory insurance is the law. But laws are only as good as the enforcement that surrounds it.
It’s against the law to shop lift, but you can shop lift every single week in this country and the judge will basically slap your wrist.
Too many bad people, too few jail bunks.
So my phone rings the other day. It’s my daughter.
“Dad?”
Her voice sounds weak. There’s an unfamiliar roar around her.
“Yes, baby.”
“I was in a wreck.”
A million thoughts go through my mind. The imagery in my brain spins like a slot machine.
Blood and glass and crumpled metal. Heart monitors, ambulances and hospitals. Your baby daughter in a crash has a tendency to bring vivid imagery to your thoughts.
I feel a chill of terror pulsate through my body as I readjust the cell phone in my hand.
“Are you ok?,” I say quickly.
There’s a pause. I hear more engine roar.
“Yeah, I’m ok. I’m in the tow truck right now.”
“Tow truck? what happened?”
“A lady hit me, then knocked me into a truck. I don’t think anyone had insurance.”
“How are you?”
“I’m sore.”
“How’s the car?”
“The police guy said it’s totalled.”
“How are the other people?”
“Fine, I guess.”
“Ok baby, hang in there, it’s going to be ok.”
Car totalled.
Only 22 more bank payments I think to myself, my head spinning like a merry go round on adrenaline.
The moment is nauseating.
My daughter is not seriously hurt. Great. The car I bought her two months ago is wrecked. And the financial nightmare is only now unfolding.
And there it is wrapped in a bow.
Young, inexperienced driver. New “old” car wrecked. two more motorists, neither of whom has insurance.
Welcome to motoring America everyone. Now buckle up and hope for the best, because that’s all you got.
Driving without insurance is a huge problem in this country.
In spite of mandatory liability insurance laws in 47 of the 50 states, the Insurance Research Council estimates that U. S. drivers have a 14% chance of being hit by an uninsured driver.
14 percent? That means out of the 100 cars around you right now on the interstate, 14 of them are not insured.
Look at them, can you tell which ones? Probably.
14 percent chance. You have a better chance of getting hit by an uninsured motorist than pulling expired milk from your grocery shelf.
And wouldn’t you know it – my collides with 2 uninsured losers in one crash. What are the odds of that Einstein? I should have picked her up and taken her to get a lottery ticket.
In case you are wondering, Colorado has the dubious distinction of being number 1 with 34% uninsured.
I called the investigating officer who said my daughter was not at fault.
He said a woman exited the interstate and just merged into her. The officer said the woman admitted to recently losing her job and dropping her insurance. The woman said she simply didn’t look as she was merging.
Great! Thanks for coming everyone. Don’t forget to tip your bartenders and waitresses before leaving.
I didn’t look. What the hell is that? That’s like the dog ate my homework. The cop should have slapped her in her stupid just lost her job face. I know I would have.
The officer says the impact knocked my daughter into a truck that was stopped, preparing to make a left turn. And guess what, the officer said the driver of that truck had neither insurance nor a license. Great! that poor bastard, minding his own business was a bigger loser than the woman who started it. I wonder who else was in that turn lane, John Gotti.
Damn, what is this nation degrading into when I’m paying for everyone’s driving mistakes.
It’s a priveledge people, not a right.
So out of this embroglio, I am the only one who is doing what I’m suppose to do.
The woman who hit my daughter was cited for failure to yield and proof of insurance.
In a quixotic world she would go to jail for causing a great deal of pain and suffering and damage. She broke the law and she should pay the consequences.
But this is a very imperfect world where a third of drivers in Colorado drive crazy, drive free, drive like a one armed bandit ready to go ballistic at a moment’s notice.
The jails are filled like a stopped up toilet with drug dealers and violent offenders. There’s nowhere to put idiots like this woman who hit my daughter.
So what’s the penalty? The judge is going to tell her to get insurance or else. Or else what? She might get cited again? You are going to make her eat a Denny’s Grand Slam Breakfast? What are you going to do your honor? Really, what is your big plan.
I was talking to the traffic school director recently about how frequently people get to go to traffic school, and trust me, it’s ridiculous how many times they get to go.
I asked why. He said the law allows it. He said we would rather offenders go to traffic school – ten, eleven, even twelve times – in hopes that they might learn something. The alternative, he says, is people losing their license and continuing to drive without licenses and more than likely without insurance.
Great, so we let people break the law over and over and over just because we can’t stop them from breaking the law in the first place.
The system is broken people.
Uninsured motorists cost all of us a lot of money. Hopefully they won’t cost you or your loved one something more significant, like a life.
That’s a hell of a gamble isn’t it?
And that is crazy.