Recent Tragedy Highlights Vermont's Need to Increase Car Insurance Liability Minimums

A 13 year old girl was recently paralyzed in a car crash on Interstate 89 in Saint Albans, Vermont. The man who caused this crash only has car insurance limits of $25,000.00 which will not pay for the medical bills. This type of minimal insurance coverage should not be allowed!

It happened because Vermont only requires a minimum of $25,000.00 of car insurance. This small car insurance limit does not cover many injuries caused by car crashes; and it is woefully inadequate for serious personal injuries like those suffered by this 8th grade girl.

Vermont needs to pass a new law that requires that drivers have at least $100,000.00 of coverage so that injured Vermonters can have their medical bills and wage loss covered when they are injured in car crashes. The current law is outdated (from the 1900s). The minimum limit should be raised to show that the State of Vermont wants to help victims of car crashes get enough money to get the treatment they need.

Larger car insurance liability limits protect all of us and will make it so that the taxpayers do not end up paying for injuries that should be covered by auto insurance companies. Increasing your liability limits to $100,000 will cost a little more per year, but will insure that if you hurt someone that you pay for their recovery.

I urge you to talk to your representatives and consider signing the Change.org petition started by Angie Farr which urges changes to Vermont's car insurance liability limits. I will be talking to legislators about this issue in the upcoming weeks and I hope you will do the same.