- a 1200 dollar deductible on a car worth 4 grand is a life ruin-er for some people.
-if insurance decides to total your vehicle and you have to dispute the value, absolute nightmare.
Personal story,
I am 7 months in awaiting my court date for an uninsured dude that totaled my buddys car I was driving. It's my buddys extra car, no UIM or comprehensive coverage. I paid 7 grand to fix it out of pocket, because his insurance would have totaled it and charged him deductable. car is valued around 4k or so, despite being the cleanest 0 legacy on the planet. all new paint, mechanic owned. Other motorist hasn't paid a dime and is ignoring all court orders.
Insurance has done fu** all for all of this.
Those are different risks and not everyone wants coverage for all of them.
Because if another driver hits you and that driver was insured to cover all the damages they caused then their policy would cover you and you'd never have to make a claim on your own policy.
There's a lot of different types of insurance you can buy:
Liability - this is mandatory. Covers damages paid to other people caused by you.
Everything else is, typically optional.
Collision - Covers damages to your car paid to you caused by you.
Comprehensive - Covers "act of God" situations paid to you like tree falling on you car, hail damage.
Uninsured/underinsured coverage - Covers damages paid to you caused by other people who weren't carrying enough insurance to fully cover the loss.
Why wish for people to be imprisoned?
Hit and run can be a grave crime. You might be leaving someone for dead.
(Theoretically, you might be able to get money back if it's a rich person who loves the thrill of driving without insurance or something. Theoretically, you could also find a winning lottery ticket on the sidewalk after the crash.)
Because they're the disposable element of the population who does hit-and-run accidents.