There were 7,136 automobile collisions in Anchorage in 2011. http://www.muni.org/Departments/works/traffic/engineering. Not surprisingly, the majority of those collisions occurred from Monday through Friday and during the winter months. Of those 7,136 collisions, .25% resulted in fatalities and 29.92% were reported as injury accidents. However, experience has shown us that many people do not realize that they are injured in a motor vehicle accidents until a few hours later and many of these latent injuries are often times serious.
In 2011, there were 192,733 passenger vehicles registered in Anchorage. http://doa.alaska.gov/dmv/research/curreg11.htm. Assuming that there was an average of two cars in each of the 7,136 collisions, that means that 14,272 vehicles were involved in accidents in 2011. In other words, seven per cent (7%) of cars registered in Anchorage were in accidents. With odds like that, it is only a matter of time until everyone in Anchorage is involved in an accident and those odds increase if you drive to work Monday through Friday during the winter.
Thirty-one per cent (31%) of those collisions were rear end accidents. It happens all of the time. One driver stops at a stop sign or a stop light and the driver behind him is driving too fast or not paying attention and slams into him. The innocent driver’s injuries can run the gamut from sprains and strains to herniated discs, rotator cuff injuries, wrist injuries and knee injuries.
Injuries from accidents can cause not only physical discomfort but the need for medical treatment, possibly surgery and time lost from work, all of which is unfair when all the injured driver was doing was driving to work in the winter, like most of us, and stopped at an intersection. The problem is that thirteen per cent (13%) of Alaskan drivers are uninsured despite the fact that driving without insurance carries stiff penalties. Not surprisingly, drivers who don’t obey the law and buy insurance also frequently don’t obey traffic laws. If that were not bad enough, there is a significant amount of hit and run accidents in Alaska as the result of drivers attempting to escape responsibility for their bad driving. Many of them are unlicensed and uninsured as well.
The bottom line is that it’s important for your own protection to purchase uninsured/underinsured motorists coverage. The minimum coverage available is $50,000/$100,000 but that is rarely enough to cover lost wages and medical costs in the event of any kind of surgery, much less in the event of a serious disabling injury.
Fore more information regarding insurance, visit my website: http://www.keenanpowell.com/faq-mva.html.