The Number

The Insurance Information Institute, citing the Insurance Research Council, puts New Mexico’s uninsured motorist rate at 24.9 percent. That is the second-highest rate of any state in the country. Nationally, the figure is 14.0 percent, about one in seven drivers.

Here, it is one in four. On a Friday afternoon on Highway 70 between Ruidoso Downs and Roswell, roughly every fourth car you pass has no insurance at all. If one of them hits you, their policy is not going to pay for your truck or your hospital bill, because there is no policy.

Liability Is Not the Coverage That Protects You

Most people think of auto insurance as one thing. It is really a stack of separate coverages, and the one the state requires is the one that protects everyone except you.

Liability pays for the other driver’s injuries and property when you cause the accident. New Mexico requires it. It does nothing for you when someone else causes the accident.

Uninsured motorist (UM) pays for your injuries when the at-fault driver has no insurance. Underinsured motorist (UIM) pays when they have some, but not enough. Together, UM/UIM is the coverage that stands in for the policy the other driver should have had.

It is optional. It is inexpensive. And on most of the policies we review, it is set at the state minimum or waived entirely, because at some point somebody was trying to bring the premium down and this was the line they cut.

What “Enough” Looks Like

Our rule is simple: your UM/UIM limits should match your liability limits. If you carry $250,000 per person and $500,000 per accident in liability, carry the same in UM/UIM. You have already decided that is what a serious accident could cost. The only question is whether you are protected when the other driver cannot pay it.

The state minimum will not get you there. A single night in the hospital after a highway crash can exceed it, and a serious injury will exceed it many times over. For the difference in premium, which on most policies is modest, matching your limits is the best value on the whole declarations page.

The Umbrella Trick

A personal umbrella policy adds one million dollars or more of liability above your auto and home policies. What most people do not know is that many umbrellas can be written to extend your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage as well, not just your liability.

That means for a few hundred dollars a year, the umbrella protects you when the driver on Highway 48 has nothing. Not every carrier offers it, and it is never automatic. Ask for it. We quote that version first.

The Mountain Part

New Mexico’s uninsured rate is a statewide problem. The rest of the list is local.

Elk and deer. An animal strike is a comprehensive claim, not a collision claim. If you dropped comprehensive to save money, the elk on the road to Alto at dusk is uninsured too.

Hail. Summer storms up here dent roofs and windshields alike. Comprehensive again.

Winter roads. The road to Cloudcroft and the grade into Alamogordo in January are where a lot of our collision claims come from. If you drive them, carry collision with a deductible you can actually pay.

Trailers and toys. The stock trailer, the side-by-side, and the motorcycle each need to be on the policy or on their own. Assuming the truck’s policy covers them is a common and expensive mistake.

What We Do

Bring us your current declarations page. In about ten minutes we can tell you what your UM/UIM limits are, what they should be, and what the difference costs. Most of the time it is a smaller number than people expect, and it is the single most important change we make to an auto policy in this state.

Send us your dec page and we will take a look.