SACRAMENTO, California, April 21th (TNSPol) — Consumer Lawyers California issued the following press release:

The Protect California Drivers Act (SB 1107, Dodd), adopted by the California State Senate Insurance Committee today with overwhelming support. The measure would finally update a California law that established mandatory minimums for automobile insurance policies in 1967.

More than fifty years later, as the cost of vehicle repairs and medical services have skyrocketed, these minimums no longer provide adequate coverage for the vast majority of Californians in the event of a vehicle accident.

“We are grateful to the Senate Insurance Committee for taking action to keep motor vehicle accident victims safe by advancing the Protect California Drivers Act. It’s not fair that car and motorcycle accidents often leave the victim weighed down by a mountain of debt, just because a 55-year-old man California law authorizes insurers to offer inadequate products that fall far short of covering the victim’s medical expenses, loss of income or vehicle repairs”, Michel Nye, Co-Chair of the California Alliance for Retired Americans (CARA) Legislative Committee. “It is time to finally modernize this outdated law and ensure that California drivers – especially retirees and other aging adults – are protected from harm.”

“It has been more than half a century since California looked closely at whether its insurance laws adequately protected drivers. As a result, low-income and even middle-income crash victims risk incurring crippling debt when the cost of recovery is so much higher than what negligent driver insurance will cover,” said Craig PetersPresident, Consumer Lawyers of California. “The Senate Committee on Insurance the support brings California one step closer to ensuring that accident victims don’t have to pay the price for someone else’s negligence on the worst day of their lives.”

When the legislature last set liability minimums, more than half a century ago, it determined that they would be $15,000 for a simple injury or death; $30,000 for the injury or death of more than one person, and $5,000 for property damage. Under the new law, auto insurers would be required to offer modernized, mandatory minimums of $30,000 / $60,000 / and $15,000 respectively.

California outdated rules put low-income families at risk of significant financial debt, especially when they are involved in an accident caused by an uninsured or underinsured driver.

The Ojeda family is a tragic example: a father and his two daughters were driving near their home in Fresno, when they were struck by an 18-year-old driver at 40 miles per hour. Pulled from the flaming wreckage, doctors discovered the father had suffered a concussion that had caused him to miss five weeks of work. Her 10-year-old daughter suffered burns to her chest and her 5-year-old daughter’s two front teeth were knocked out. The car has been totaled.

The negligent driver was covered by the exceeded mandatory minimum penalties, so the Ojeda family only received $30,000 for their injuries and $5,000 for the total car – but had to take out thousands of loans to cover the full cost of the accident. They are still repaying those loans today.