# US Driving requirements **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 28, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-driving-requirements/439513 "2008-02-28T15:52:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-driving-requirements/439513/63 "2022-06-01T15:31:26Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > Washington is one of the easiest states to get away without being insured, close to 20% of the drivers in the state are uninsured. I agree. And a whole lot of other people have the minimum limits of $25,000. Not a lot if they kill someone or put them in a hospital for a couple of weeks. If you live in a state like this, buy UIM insurance. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-driving-requirements/439513/64 "2022-06-01T15:42:19Z")
FTR, the OP disappeared a dozen years ago and has almost certainly died. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-driving-requirements/439513/65 "2022-06-01T15:52:25Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > He works in a small rural town. He said about 2/3 of the people he pulls over for traffic offenses are uninsured. I’d think that he has a sampling bias, to some extent. These are people who have chosen not to get insurance, so they probably aren’t all that respectful of other traffic laws. In Ohio, you can lose your license for not having insurance, so most uninsured I know drive very carefully. > [@Procrustus](#): > > Not a lot if they kill someone or put them in a hospital for a couple of weeks. The former is often a whole lot cheaper than the latter. But yeah, if you don’t have many assets to protect, then having the minimum makes sense. OTOH, if you _do_ have a reasonable amount of personal wealth, then it can get wiped out _real_ quick by an accident, and it’s not much more in premiums to bump it up substantially. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-driving-requirements/439513/66 "2022-06-02T12:24:53Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > The former is often a whole lot cheaper than the latter. > > But yeah, if you don’t have many assets to protect, then having the minimum makes sense. OTOH, if you _do_ have a reasonable amount of personal wealth, then it can get wiped out _real_ quick by an accident, and it’s not much more in premiums to bump it up substantially. A friend of mine who studied economics at the U of Toronto many years ago recounts how their prof basically said “If you run over a child, better back up and make sure they’re dead. It’s a _lot_ cheaper.” Same when I got insurance for a motorcycle over 20 years ago - I mentioned how the annual insurance was about a third of the value of the motorcycle; the agent said “yes, but if you hit them with a really cheap motorcycle, the person is just as badly injured.” > OTOH, if you _do_ have a reasonable amount of personal wealth,… If you don’t, you are engaging in what is known as the “kamikaze defense” which is basically “go ahead and sue, you won’t even recover your lawyers’ fees.” Another incident in the news I recall from way back when, was some guy injured when an idiot driving his truck on the beach in Florida (Daytona?) ran over a Canadian tourist. The driver was from some state where at the time the minimum insurance was $25,000 - which the paper pointed out, barely covered the cost of the hospital’s emergency treatment of a head injury for the first few days, let alone the ongoing care or transporting him back to Canada - thus pointing out how important travel health insurance could be. My older sensible self shudders at the thought that in my earlier years I drove a motorcycle across the USA several times with zero health insurance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-driving-requirements/439513.md?page=3)