What’s the Best Car Insurance to Have? A Personal Injury Lawyer Explains

Auto insurance can feel like one of those things people buy because they have to, not because they want to. Most drivers scroll through coverage options, pick something that looks reasonable, and move on. But the truth is, every line in an auto policy represents a different kind of financial protection, and some coverages matter far more than people realize until it’s too late. If you drive in Connecticut, one category stands above the rest right now as a true must-have: uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.

Before diving into why that coverage is so important, it helps to understand what the main options on a typical policy actually do.

Bodily Injury and Property Damage Liability is the core of almost every auto insurance plan. This is the coverage that protects you when you cause an accident. If you injure another driver or damage someone else’s vehicle or property, liability coverage pays for their medical bills, repairs, legal costs, and related damages up to your policy limits. It does not protect your own injuries or your own car. It exists to cover the harm you may cause to others.

Medical Payments coverage, often called MedPay, helps pay for medical expenses for you and your passengers after an accident, no matter who is at fault. It can help cover ambulance rides, emergency room visits, deductibles, and co-pays. It’s a useful layer of immediate support, especially if you want extra protection beyond health insurance.

Comprehensive coverage protects your vehicle against non-collision events. Think theft, vandalism, hail, falling objects, animal strikes, fire, or broken glass. It’s coverage for the unexpected things that happen to your car outside of a typical crash.

Collision coverage is what pays to repair or replace your vehicle if you hit another car or object, regardless of fault. If you don’t carry collision, you may be paying entirely out of pocket for repairs after an accident, even if it happens quickly or unexpectedly.

Rental reimbursement coverage helps pay for a rental car while your vehicle is in the shop after a covered claim. Without it, you’re responsible for transportation costs during repairs.

Roadside assistance covers services like towing, jump-starts, flat tires, lockouts, and emergency fuel delivery. It’s more of a convenience coverage, but it can be extremely helpful in stressful situations.

Custom parts and equipment coverage protects aftermarket upgrades that standard insurance might not fully cover, such as custom rims, sound systems, or modifications.

Loan or lease payoff coverage, often called gap coverage, helps if your vehicle is totaled and you owe more on your loan or lease than the car is worth. Without gap coverage, you could still be stuck paying thousands even after your car is gone.

All of these coverages have a purpose, but none of them address one of the most common and financially devastating realities on the road today: getting hit by someone who cannot pay.

That is where uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage becomes the most important protection in your policy.

Uninsured motorist coverage exists for one reason: not everyone follows the law. Some drivers have no insurance at all. Others let their policies lapse. Some are driving illegally. And in many cases, the most dangerous drivers on the road are the ones least likely to be properly insured.

If one of those drivers hits you, their lack of coverage does not erase your injuries, medical bills, lost wages, or long-term recovery costs. Without uninsured motorist coverage, you may be left trying to sue someone with no money, relying entirely on your health insurance, or absorbing massive expenses yourself.

Underinsured motorist coverage is just as critical, and arguably even more relevant today. Underinsured means the other driver does have insurance, but not enough. They may carry the minimum required limits, which often fall far short of what a serious crash actually costs.

A major injury accident can easily result in tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical care, rehabilitation, and lost income. If the at-fault driver only has minimal coverage, their insurer may pay out quickly and then stop. Once their limits are exhausted, the rest becomes your problem unless you have underinsured motorist protection.

This is not a rare scenario. In 2023, more than one in six drivers in the United States, about 18 percent, were underinsured according to the Insurance Research Council. That number has been rising as claim severity increases and the cost of healthcare and vehicle repairs continues to climb. Depending on the state, underinsurance rates range dramatically, reaching nearly 50 percent in some places. The takeaway is simple: you cannot assume the person who hits you has enough coverage to make you whole.

Now add another growing factor in Connecticut that makes this coverage even more essential: hit-and-run crashes.

Hit-and-run incidents, legally referred to as evading responsibility, have been rising across the state. Approximately 2,500 hit-and-run crashes were reported statewide in 2022. Connecticut also saw over 103,000 total vehicle accidents in 2024, and in urban areas, evasion remains a serious issue. In New Haven, for example, evasion rates dropped from 14.7 percent in 2021 to 10.3 percent by November 2024, but that still means more than one in ten crashes involved someone leaving the scene.

When a driver flees, you often have no identity, no insurance information, and no immediate path to compensation. Uninsured motorist coverage is what protects you in that moment. It becomes your safety net when the system fails to hold the other driver accountable.

This is the key point most people miss when shopping for insurance: liability coverage protects other people from you, but uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage protects you from other people.

And other people are unpredictable. They may be uninsured. They may be underinsured. They may panic and run. They may be intoxicated. They may have nothing to lose. You cannot control who is on the road with you, but you can control whether you are financially protected when something goes wrong.

In Connecticut’s current driving environment, uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is not just a nice add-on. It is one of the smartest, most practical, and most necessary coverages you can carry.

Because the worst accident isn’t always the one you cause. Sometimes it’s the one that happens to you, caused by someone who disappears, or someone whose insurance was never enough in the first place.

If you want your auto policy to truly protect you, not just satisfy legal requirements, uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage should be at the top of your list.

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