- Vaughn A. Wamsley
- Motorcycle Accidents
A hit-and-run leaves an injured person with clear fault and nobody to claim against. The same problem arises when the at-fault driver is identified but has no insurance or has limits that cover only a fraction of the harm.
Indiana requires coverage on every auto policy that addresses exactly this. It is coverage you have already paid for, and in serious cases, it is often the entire claim.
Two Different Coverages
Uninsured motorist coverage applies where the at-fault driver has no insurance, or cannot be identified.
Underinsured motorist coverage applies when the driver has insurance, but it is insufficient to cover the damages.
Indiana requires insurers to offer both, and they are included unless the insurer rejects them in writing. Many drivers who believe they declined actually carry it, which is why you should check the declarations page rather than assume.
Indiana Minimum Limits Are Low
State minimum liability limits are modest relative to what a serious injury costs. A single hospital admission with surgery exhausts them.
That means underinsured coverage is the practical source of recovery in a large share of significant claims. A driver carrying only minimum limits also carries minimum underinsured coverage, which compounds the problem.
Increasing these limits is among the cheapest coverage decisions available, and it protects you, not someone else.
Hit-and-Run Requirements
Uninsured coverage responds to a hit-and-run, but carriers apply additional requirements to these claims because a phantom vehicle is difficult to disprove.
Prompt reporting to law enforcement is generally required, and delay in reporting is used to question whether the incident occurred as described.
Some policies require physical contact with the unidentified vehicle. That excludes the scenario in which a driver was forced off the road by a vehicle that never touched them, which is a very common occurrence.
Independent witnesses matter more in these claims than almost any other. Where someone saw the other vehicle, noted a partial plate, or can describe it, the claim becomes substantially stronger.
Uninsured Driving Is Common Here
A meaningful share of drivers on Indiana roads carry no insurance at all, despite the requirement, and many more carry only minimum limits.
That reality is the practical argument for carrying meaningful uninsured and underinsured coverage. The protection you buy for yourself is more reliable than the protection the law requires of everyone else.
It also means an injured person should assume from the outset that the at-fault driver’s coverage may be inadequate, and should investigate their own available coverage in parallel rather than waiting to discover the shortfall.
Steps After a Hit-and-Run
- Call police immediately and ensure a report is generated
- Write down everything you recall about the vehicle while it is fresh
- Look for cameras — businesses, homes, traffic cameras, doorbell systems
- Ask anyone who stopped for their contact details
- Photograph the damage, including any paint transfer
- Notify your own insurer promptly
- Seek medical attention the same day where possible
Camera canvassing is time-sensitive and productive, and Vaughn A. Wamsley begins it immediately. Residential doorbell cameras and business systems frequently capture footage of a fleeing vehicle, but the footage is overwritten within days. Someone needs to be knocking on doors quickly.
Phantom Vehicles Without Contact
The scenario where a driver was run off the road by a vehicle that never touched them is common and legally awkward.
Where a policy requires physical contact for an uninsured motorist claim, this scenario falls outside it, and the injured person has no obvious source of recovery at all.
Where the policy does not require contact, the claim proceeds, but the carrier scrutinizes it closely because the account cannot be corroborated by damage to the vehicle.
Independent witnesses, dashcam footage and prompt police reporting are what make these claims viable. Without at least one of them, the claim is difficult regardless of what actually happened.
The Consent-to-Settle Rule
This is the most damaging trap for someone handling a claim without advice.
Before accepting a settlement from the at-fault driver’s insurer, you generally must notify your own underinsured carrier and give it an opportunity to protect its interests. Settling and signing a release without doing so can forfeit your underinsured coverage entirely.
The reason is subrogation. Your carrier has the right to pursue the at-fault driver, and a release you signed extinguishes that right.
This happens constantly. An adjuster offers policy limits; it looks like a good result, the release is signed, and the much larger underinsured claim is gone.
It Is Still an Adversarial Claim
A claim against your own insurer is not a cooperative process, and people expect it to be.
Your carrier will investigate fault, dispute the extent of injuries, and require you to prove the claim as any insurer would. Comparative fault applies in the same way, which means the same arguments about your conduct arise.
Policies also impose obligations on you — prompt notice, cooperation, examination under oath if requested, medical authorizations. Failing those can jeopardize coverage independently of the merits.
Indiana recognizes that an insurer owes a duty of good faith to its own insured, and a carrier that denies a valid claim without a reasonable basis faces exposure beyond the policy limits.
Stacking and Multiple Policies
Where a household carries policies on more than one vehicle, or where more than one policy might apply, the total available coverage can be considerably larger than the declarations page for a single car suggests.
Whether coverage stacks depends on the policy language and the circumstances. Anti-stacking provisions are common and are not always enforceable as written.
Reviewing every policy in the household is worth doing at the outset of any serious claim. Injured people often discover coverage on a spouse’s vehicle or a resident relative’s policy that no one thought to check.
Medical Payments Coverage
Separate from uninsured and underinsured coverage, many Indiana policies include medical payments coverage, which pays medical expenses regardless of fault up to a limit.
It is inexpensive, it pays quickly, and it fills the gap while a liability claim is developed. A great many drivers carry it without realizing and never claim it.
Health insurers and providers may assert reimbursement rights against any eventual recovery, and coordinating those interests is part of determining what an injured person actually receives.
Bad Faith Claims Handling
Indiana recognizes that an insurer owes a duty of good faith and fair dealing to its own insured, and that duty is enforceable.
A carrier that denies a valid claim without a reasonable basis, delays unreasonably, or fails to investigate properly can face liability beyond the policy amount.
This matters most in uninsured and underinsured claims, because those are made against your own carrier. The relationship shifts from customer to claimant, and carriers sometimes treat it accordingly.
Documenting communications, keeping records of what was submitted and when, and noting unexplained delays preserve the ability to raise the issue if necessary.
Who Is Covered
Coverage extends further than most people realize.
Policies typically cover the named insured, resident relatives, and anyone who is permitted to occupy a covered vehicle. A passenger injured in someone else’s car may also have access to their own household policy.
Pedestrians and cyclists struck by a vehicle can also access uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage under their own auto policy, even if none of their vehicles were involved. That is among the most commonly missed sources of recovery.
A final point worth knowing: making an uninsured or underinsured claim for a crash you did not cause should not be treated as an at-fault claim by your carrier. Fear of a premium increase keeps people from using the coverage they paid for, and that fear is generally misplaced.
If you were hit by a driver who fled or had no insurance in the Indianapolis area, call Vaughn A. Wamsley before signing anything from any insurer, including your own.