Some Alabama motorists may need to buy more auto lia­bility insurance in a few months.

 Gov. Bob Riley said he in­tends to sign legislation raising Alabama’s minimum insurance requirements for the first time in 25 years.

The Legislature approved a bill May 8 that would raise Ala­bama’s minimum limits for mandatory auto liability insur­ance from:
$20,000 to $25,000 for a sin­gle injury or death.
$40,000 to $50,000 for multi­ple injuries or deaths.
$10,000 to $25,000 for prop­erty damage.

The bill, a compromise be­tween plaintiff lawyers and in­surance companies, raises limits that haven’t been changed since 1983. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, said the changes are long overdue to protect mo­torists who are hit in traffic ac­cidents.

“You certainly can’t buy a new car for $10,000 today,” he said.

The Legislature passed a similar bill last year, but the governor vetoed it because it would have taken effect immedi­ately and insurance companies wouldn’t have time to adjust.

Bedford and Rep. Marc Kea­hey, D-Grove Hill, redesigned the new bill so it will take effect in three months for new policies and six months for renewals.

“The only thing we had last year was the companies just didn’t have enough time to implement it,” Riley said in an interview Thursday.

The new minimums bring Alabama in line with the insur­ance requirements in Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, South Car­olina and Texas.

Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky have the same limits for injuries and deaths but smaller amounts for property damage. Florida and Louisiana have lower amounts across the board, and North Carolina’s minimums are higher for inju­ries and deaths than those planned for Alabama, according to the Insurance Information In­stitute.

By Keahey’s estimates, the higher liability requirements will affect less than 10 percent of Alabama’s motorists and cause them to pay $20 to $30 extra per year.

At Alfa Insurance, spokes­man Dave Rickey said 6.5 per­cent of the company’s customers buy the minimum limits and would be affected by the bill.

The bill also raises the min­imum amount of uninsured mo­torist coverage to match liabili­ty coverage.

Rickey said about 90 percent of Alfa’s customers buy the min­imum amount for uninsured motorist coverage. Alfa esti­mates the average customer would have to pay an extra $13.20 annually for the higher uninsured motorist coverage.

Uninsured motorist cover­age is optional in Alabama. It kicks in when the driver at fault in an accident has no insurance or too little insurance to cover all the damage.

Categories: Huntsville Auto
Tags: alabama auto insurance, car insurance