Why You Need More Than the Required Anchorage Car Insurance

The minimum required Anchorage Car Insurance does not protect you enough from Alaskan driving hazards.

The minimum Anchorage car insurance coverage won’t pay anything when one of these guys total your car.

Every state in the U.S. requires that their drivers carry car insurance, and Alaska is no exception. The only difference is that there are certain areas in the state where it is not required for drivers to register their vehicles, and for those areas only you are not required to carry car insurance.

Anchorage is not one of these exempt places, and drivers here are required to carry a certain amount of Anchorage car insurance to be able to drive legally. However, even with being required to have insurance it may not be enough to protect you from common driving dangers in Alaska.

What Is the Minimum Anchorage Car Insurance Needed?

The State of Alaska requires that all registered vehicles carry no less than the following Anchorage car insurance:

• $50,000 in liability coverage to pay for the medical bills of a single person you injure in a car accident
• $100,000 in liability coverage for medical bills if there are two or more people injured in an accident you cause
• $25,000 in liability coverage for property that you damage in an accident

Why You Need More Than the Minimum Required Insurance

As you can see from the Anchorage car insurance requirements above, they are all liability coverages. Liability coverage in car insurance only covers the damages you cause to another person. Yes, it is beneficial coverage for you because you don’t have to pay for these damages out of your own pocket, but these coverages do not pay for your own medical expenses or damages to your vehicle.

You will have to pay for these items on your own, unless you purchase additional Anchorage car insurance that pays for your damages.

Here are just a handful of reasons from the Alaska Department of Transportation’s traffic records from 2009 as to why you need to purchase more than the minimum required Anchorage car insurance:

• There were 575 moose vs. car accidents (1 -2 everyday), which made up 4.5% of all car accidents in Alaska that year. Of these 575 accidents, 24.2% of them happened around Anchorage.
• 49% of accidents happened on roads that were covered in ice or snow
• 14% of all accidents were vehicle vs. fixed object crashes
• 28% of all car accidents only involved one vehicle
• There were 901 accidents where the person that caused the accident left the scene without providing their personal or insurance information.

These statistics show just how many car accidents happen in Alaska due to circumstances that cannot be controlled by the driver. They also show how many single car accidents happen in a year. And when it is just you in the accident, there is no other driver to hold liable or to pay for the damages to you and your vehicle.

So before you become one of these statistics and find yourself with medical bills you can’t pay or vehicle damage you can’t afford to fix, contact your local agent today to find out how much Anchorage car insurance you need to be adequately protected.