People who drink and drive could get a nasty shock when they sober up.
If you break the cardinal rule and drive when you are impaired, every other rule changes too, especially those that apply to your vehicle insurance. Driving impaired can be very costly in terms of lives lost, injuries suffered and loss of property but it can also be costly when it comes to getting insurance.
Sure you’ve paid your premiums and they may be up to date, but before you hit the road and go for a drunken spin, it might be worthwhile to check the exclusions that are plainly written on your insurance policy. You may find that if you are found to have driven while impaired and have an accident, the injuries or losses that are incurred by others will be covered up to the limit of your coverage. Your injuries and losses, however, may not be insured, no matter how severe.
“Normally the driver of a vehicle is insured up to the limit of the insurance. If you are drunk, injuries to others will be covered to that limit. Injuries to the impaired driver may not be covered,” said Steve Kee, a spokesman from the Insurance Bureau of Canada.
Passengers in your vehicle will be covered, even if they too are impaired.
“You will be insured against bodily injury to others, even if they are drunk, but they are not operating the vehicle. If you are operating that vehicle, you are responsible. You are liable. Drinking and driving is serious and the message is clear: don’t drink and drive,” Kee said.
You may insure so that anything you hit, whether it’s another car, a child on a bicycle or a telephone pole, is looked after and damages will be paid. But what if you don’t hit anything? What if you go through a Check Stop or if for any reason a police officer stops you and you are charged with impaired driving? What happens to your insurance then?
“If you are convicted of impaired driving it may be extremely difficult to get insurance. Plus, your present insurer may drop you,” Kee said.
High risk drivers may be able to get insurance through the Facility Association, a non-profit entity established by the automobile insurance agency. The Facility Association may agree to insure a high-risk driver with a valid license, even if that driver cannot obtain insurance through the normal insurance market.
“High risk insurance could cost you ten times the normal rate of insurance. You might pay $8,000 or $10,000 for high risk insurance,” Kee said.
Kee has no sympathy for impaired drivers. He knows how high the costs can be to families, who lose loved ones, to the once-best friends who lose their eyesight, their limbs and their lives, and to individuals, who despite being insured, lose everything.
“It’s always the other person. It’s the innocents who are hit by drunks. It’s tragic and it ruins lives and families,” he said.
Kee said he had thought and hoped that in recent years there were fewer incidents of impaired driving, but now insurers are having to pay for accidents caused by distracted drivers.
His own children were deterred from driving when under the influence of alcohol because the penalties were so severe for teenaged drivers. The Zero Tolerance laws have been effective in deterring youths from driving impaired, Kee said.
“I thought the last few years there was less and less impaired driving. Driving while impaired became more and more socially unacceptable. Now people get in the same terrible accidents because of distracted driving. It has the same impact. I hope that distracted driving becomes as unacceptable as impaired driving,” Kee said.
The only answer against impaired driving Kee said is that people must make plans while they are still sober, before the idea that they are invincible and safe to drive takes hold.
“Make plans. Always make plans. A taxi may be expensive, but in the long run it’s worth it,” he said.
