EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA — There’s a lot changes surrounding automobile insurance this year. Premiums are up, along with higher minimums for bodily injury, and property damage.
You’ve probably realized it when you renewed. Plus, coverage for uninsured or underinsured drivers is required by law.
While most people are left to pay more. The number of drivers on the road without insurance is also at record highs.
The consequences, can be lifelong.
A car accident in and of itself is scary.
In an instant, Sue Hostig’s life changed.
and there’s a lot to it, and it stays with you for a long time.
In 1988, she was hit by an uninsured driver, who ran a stop sign.
I went forward, I had the seat belt on but I went forward and back.
Her car, totaled. She suffered injuries to her neck and knees.
I will never forget this accident.
Life stopped there for a while.
Her insurance company, GEICO, covering some of the costs.
They finally got his information and they said he has no assets, so we can’t go after him personally, so it was a done deal, I was done.
It was terrible, I had no recourse.
All the while medical bills and a new car payment added up.
It was just the false hope, that they might be able to you know, get him to pay for some of this, because I did have the hospital stay.
Now more than 30-years later, Sue is back at the doctor’s office.
Do you understand I’m an athlete, I can barely walk, I can’t ride a bike anymore.
Over time, the avid runner of 40-years, lost feeling in parts of her body, new pain in other parts.
Leading to a neck and lower back surgery within the past 5 years.
I never fell, I never had any sort of head trauma, or whatever, they attributed it to that accident.
It’s been a problem for a long time.” said NCDOI Comissioner Mike Causey
We have way too many people on our roads driving without insurance or without a drivers license.
North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey says the more people who drive uninsured, the more pressure there is to increase insurance rates. A new 5% statewide increase started this month.
After he settled in June with North Carolina rate Bureau, which represents insurance companies.
We’re one of the deadliest states for automobile crashes.
The latest state data reveals, since 2017, the number of drivers on North Carolina highways increased more than 24%.
8.7 million drivers share the road since 2023. While you may see more congestion.
You likely feel the pinch to your budget too. In the same time, premiums have risen around 81%.
The estimated annual average is $1-thousand-825-dollars for 2025.
Too many people got out and they’ll buy a policy just to get coverage and they’ll pay a one-month premium and they never pay anymore.
The number of drivers who let their policy lapse is up too. The Insurance Research Council reports a 4.7% increase in our state since 2017.
That’s at least one in 10 cars on the road, and 15-to-20% of the premium payouts.
In 2023, 11.8% of drivers were uninsured compared to a 15.4% national average.
We’ve got to do more in the traffic enforcement part, but the problem is the State Highway Patrol and most of the local law enforcement agencies are understaffed.
We don’t know it until we come across it by running a registration or investigating a collision.” said NC State Highway Patrol Trooper Rico Stephens.
Master Trooper Rico Stephens has been with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol for 20 years.
When we stop a driver and we discover they have no insurance on the vehicle that they are operating, if they are the registered owner we cite them a ticket for the insurance violation, if they’re not the registered owner by general statute we cannot cite them.
He says the vehicle is towed until the registration and insurance is reinstated.
Sometimes we may look at vehicles that may have a significant amount of damage on them, and the trooper may say why do they have that much damage, is it because they don’t have insurance to fix the vehicle, so there’s a lot of ways we go out and look for insurance violations.
Under state law, driving without required insurance is a class 3 misdemeanor.
That could mean a $200-dollar-fine, penalties from DMV, plate revocation, and even jail time.
They should pay, not only for a measly fine, but they should pay and to really learn a lesson saying you’ve got to watch out.” said Sue Hostig.
For Sue, the accident is in the rear view mirror, and her focus is on moving forward.
Not even so much the metal and the computer, it’s the person, it’s the injury, because just like in my case, you had bodily injury, and you’re paid for what you see right now, but who knows down the road.
Ultimately, if there’s nothing you can do, you just have to go on, you really just have to go on and heal from it mentally and physically and put it behind you.
Commissioner Causey says there needs to be stricter laws on the books for people driving without a license or insurance, and since everything is more expensive, Commissioner Causey suggests shopping around for policies. There’s more than 200 companies writing auto insurance in our state.
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Based in New York, Stephen Freeman is a Senior Editor at Trending Insurance News. Previously he has worked for Forbes and The Huffington Post. Steven is a graduate of Risk Management at the University of New York.