Before I had a job, I didn’t have money to buy a car nor transportation to get to work. I still remember asking numerous people for rides home from school to avoid the hour-long bus ride to my house about five minutes from the school. Finally, my step-dad bought me a car, and grateful is an understatement for how I felt.

I loved that car. It was a pearly-white, 2002 Lincoln LS. I named the car Ivory. That car took me everywhere, I practically lived in it after I first got it. I’m sure you remember the way you felt about the freedom of your first car.

From Kansas, Ivory took me to Colorado to live with my best friend. I ended up here by myself, though, living and working, trying out the world of adulthood, which wasn’t at all as I had planned it would be. It was much, much more expensive.

In September of 2017, I got into a car accident. I was T-boned by a driver turning left on a yield-to-turn light. He hit my driver’s side door. I was devastated. My first concern was the well-being of the other driver, followed by the concern of the loss of my vehicle.

My car was totaled. I didn’t even know enough people to have a ride home from the scene. Luckily, the driver behind me pulled off and stayed with me in the cold the entire time while the police came, the tow-truck came, and then she took me home.

I was by myself, in another state. Barely scraping up the money to pay bills each month, I hardly had money to Uber around to work and doctor’s appointments for my injuries.

Because this accident wasn’t my fault, I assumed I would be taken care of. I’d get compensation for my vehicle and injuries, and I wouldn’t have to worry.

I found out a few days later that this wasn’t the case. Although he had written down insurance information, it wasn’t valid. The driver who hit my car was uninsured.

Not only was I injured and in pain, I was intensely anxious, and without a car. Before realizing the driver was uninsured, I visited an Urgent Care, a chiropractor, and got X-rays for my injuries.

I now had medical bills to pay for, a new car to purchase, and a tremendous amount of pain and anxiety to deal with. All of this wasn’t my fault.

The point of my story isn’t to throw a pity party. This is a real-life example of what someone will go through if an uninsured driver hits them. Therefore, insurance is essential to owning and driving a vehicle.

 By: KayLynn