Responsible consumers being taken for a ride again

Today the Wall Street Journal reports that an increasing number of consumers are no longer paying for automobile insurance because of the economy. What does that mean for responsible consumers like me who pay for insurance? If an uninsured driver hits me, I'm screwed.

This very thing happened to me a couple of years ago. A guy without insurance or a job slammed into me from behind in an accident that was 100% his fault. The result was thousands of dollars of damage, and an opportunity to pay my $1,000 deductible out of my own pocket. How fair is that?

I believe that having insurance is a very important part of being a driver. You owe it to the other people on the road to make sure that if you injure someone or damage their property, there is coverage in place to pay what is owed. But the bottom line is that those of us who are responsible will end up paying the price more and once because of those who choose to be irresponsible. We'll be stuck paying for extra coverage for instances when motorists are uninsured, and we'll have to pay our deductibles out of our own pockets even when an uninsured motorist is at fault in an accident.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.