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MAKE LIABILITY INSURANCE MANDATORY

Dear St. Thomas Source,
Even though I moved away from St. Thomas two months ago, I take great interest in news from there, particularly in the current bill to make car insurance mandatory.
Sen. Judy Gomez was quoted in a July 22, 1999 article ("Revenue enhancement passed, car insurance mandatory") as saying that requiring liability coverage for all drivers would be a "disservice" to residents already overburdened by bills. She cited the eminent possibility of government cutbacks—and hence, unemployment—as her reasoning for her belief. While I am generally open-minded to other people's opinions, I would like to take this opportunity to say that Sen. Gomez is making a fool out of herself on this one.
In the year that I lived on St. Thomas, nearly everyone I met had a story to tell about being involved in a car accident without insurance.
Most were minor, some even humorous or self-inflicted, like my friend who forgot to set his parking brake and flattened a flagpole. While the nature of that incident probably would have prompted my friend to pay out of his own pocket for any damage to the vehicle—insurance or no insurance—what if there had been someone in the path of either the pole or the car? What if the car had knocked someone down, breaking the person's arm? I don't know if my friend was covered or not, but for the sake of example, let's say he was not carrying insurance at the time.
My friend would have likely had to pay out of pocket for an expensive emergency visit to the hospital for that person his car hit, plus what he would have had to pay the owner of the flagpole. It would have been even more expensive if the person had suffered a concussion, additional broken bones or internal injuries.
Or what if that person had been killed? Then what? And what if he couldn't come up with the damages owed to the person or the person's family? My friend probably would have faced a long, costly court process with some pretty serious charges and consequences.
Yes, it's morbid, and yes, I'm describing worst-case scenario. But there are too many what-ifs in life to gamble with.
There are dozens, perhaps even hundreds of residents in the territory who are currently on a monthly payment plan, indebted to another private citizen whose $12,000 car they totaled in an accident. Why pay $200 a month for several years when you can pay $300 to 500 for an entire year to keep yourself out of trouble? Obviously, insurance rates will be more or less expensive depending upon a number of factors that I won't go into. Regardless, I still think it is a wiser choice than to go without coverage entirely.
If protecting your car or protecting other citizens is not in your interest—as many islanders drive cars worth less than the cost of the insurance—look at it as simply protecting yourself. And not just from prosecution: Are you the one receiving those payments from the jerk who hit you a year and a half ago? Don't you wish you could have just gotten all that money at once and been done with it rather than remaining at that person's mercy for years, being reminded of that accident every single month when you get your check and every time you look at that front quarter panel on your Civic that you can't afford to get fixed yet?
I don't know about Sen. Gomez, but I can think of better ways to spend two years of my life. As a senator, maybe she can afford to pay for the damages inflicted by an uninsured motorist and wait leisurely for the reparations to come. Or maybe she can just borrow a government car until hers gets fixed. But like she indicated, most regular people don't have much extra money floating around, and in my opinion, it would be a disservice, to use her word, not to make liability insurance mandatory.
Holly Simpson
Chicago, IL
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