You Can Drive Carefully and Still Get Hurt: Why Palm Beach County Drivers Need Maximum Uninsured Motorist Coverage
By David Zappitell
I have spent much of my career representing responsible people whose lives were turned upside down by someone else’s reckless driving. One lesson has become painfully clear:
You can obey every traffic law, carry good insurance and pay attention to the road, yet still be seriously injured by a driver who has no business being behind the wheel.
Palm Beach County recorded 26,550 traffic crashes in 2024. Statewide, Florida reported 381,210 crashes and 3,184 traffic deaths that year. These are not abstract numbers. They represent people who left home expecting an ordinary day and instead found themselves in an ambulance, Delray Medical Center emergency room or a legal battle with an insurance company. And you are lucky if the person that struck you has insurance at all! More on that later.
South Florida Is a Mixing Bowl of Driving Habits
Driving in Delray Beach and South Florida in general means sharing the road with longtime residents, tourists, snowbirds, new arrivals from other countries, rideshare drivers, delivery vehicles, insane daredevil speeders, motorcycles and scooters, elderly motorists and commuters rushing to get somewhere five minutes faster.
All these varied driving styles (and experience), the hectic coming and going and various modes of transportation are not the problem. The unpredictability is.
A delivery driver may be unfamiliar with the area and following a GPS. A senior may be driving too slowly in the left lane. A teen may be doing wheelies on his streetbike to impress his girlfriend, a salesman may be texting, searching for an address or making a sudden turn from the wrong lane. Then an impatient young driver comes flying up behind everyone, weaving across traffic and turning an already unpredictable situation into a dangerous one.
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles reports that a crash occurs somewhere in Florida approximately every 44 seconds, and about one in seven crashes involves a distracted driver.
The Drivers Who Treat Our Roads Like a Racetrack
Anyone who regularly drives I-95 through Delray Beach or Boca Raton has seen them.
You may be driving 70 MPH between Linton Boulevard on the way to Glades Road on 95 when a brightly colored ‘rice burner’ suddenly appears in your mirror, blasts past at an extreme speed and cuts across three lanes without signaling. I’m sure you’ve also experienced young drivers on sports motorcycles buzzing by you at ungodly speeds. Sometimes it is an adult, speeding to the dentist, who is certainly old enough to know better.
I do not care how expensive the car is, how loud the exhaust sounds or how skilled the driver imagines himself to be. I-95 is not a private racetrack! I’m sure you agree.
Buzzing past families at 100 miles per hour or more doesn’t demonstrate how cool you are, It is selfish, dangerous conduct that not only startles you temporarily, but gives everyone else on the highway only seconds, and sometimes fractions of a second, to react.
This is called ‘aggressive driving’. FLHSMV’s 2023 crash report recorded 16,092 speeding or aggressive-driving crash events. The people involved included 437 fatalities and 1,232 incapacitating injuries.
Florida law now defines certain conduct as “dangerous excessive speeding.” That includes driving at least 50 miles per hour over the speed limit or traveling 100 miles per hour or faster in a manner that threatens people or property or interferes with another vehicle. A first conviction can carry jail time, a fine or both.
That law exists because extreme speed is not a harmless traffic violation. It can kill innocent people.
Delray Beach and Boca Raton Drivers See the Risks Every Day
Consider a few ordinary situations familiar to local drivers:
You are heading east on Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach when a visitor following navigation instructions abruptly crosses two lanes to make a turn.
You are driving on Military Trail when someone pulls out of a shopping center without properly judging the speed of traffic.
You are approaching the I-95 interchange on Glades Road in Boca Raton when one driver hesitates, another tailgates and a third tries to force his way through the gap.
You are traveling along Federal Highway or Yamato Road when a speeding driver races around slower traffic, only to slam on the brakes at the next light.
Any one of these situations can cause a crash. Combine several of them, and a careful driver can be placed in an impossible position.
Defensive driving helps. Leaving space helps. Avoiding distractions helps. But defensive driving is not a force field. It cannot stop a reckless driver from rear-ending you, sideswiping you or forcing you off the road.
A Speeding Driver Can Cause a Crash Without Hitting You
The reckless driver does not always make physical contact.
A car may cut across your lane, forcing you to swerve into a barrier or another vehicle. A motorcycle may fly between lanes, causing several motorists to brake suddenly. An extreme speeder may disappear before anyone has time to record the license plate.
That is why evidence matters.
After a crash, photographs, video, dashcam footage, traffic-camera recordings, witness information and electronic vehicle data may help establish what really happened. Memories fade. Vehicles are repaired or destroyed. Video can be overwritten. A lawyer who understands litigation should know how to identify, preserve and pursue that evidence.
When someone causes a serious crash and then denies responsibility, I do not accept the easiest explanation simply because an insurance adjuster prefers it. The facts must be investigated, developed and proved.
“Good Insurance” Must Protect You, Not Just Everyone Else
Many careful Palm Beach County drivers believe they have excellent automobile insurance because they carry high liability limits, collision coverage and comprehensive coverage.
That is only part of the picture.
Liability insurance generally protects you when you injure someone else. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage protects you and your family when the person who injures you has no bodily injury insurance or not nearly enough of it.
Under Florida law 627.727, an insurer issuing bodily injury liability coverage must offer uninsured motorist coverage. The coverage is generally offered at limits equal to the policy’s bodily injury liability limits unless the insured signs a written rejection or chooses lower limits.
As a proven litigator with vast experience dealing with insurance companies on bodily injury claims and limits, my recommendation is straightforward:
Purchase as much bodily injury liability insurance as you can reasonably afford, and obtain the maximum uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage available to match it. You will thank me later.
Do not just casually sign a form rejecting UM coverage to save a few dollars. You must not assume the person who hits you will have adequate insurance. Remember, according to
The Palm Beach Post, approximately 16% of drivers have NO CAR INSURANCE…and my educated guess is that that number has only risen since.
And do not assume that because you own a nice vehicle and maintain a responsible policy, everyone around you has done the same.
A driver can cause a catastrophic injury and carry little or no bodily injury coverage. Without sufficient UM protection, the careful driver may be the person left with unpaid medical expenses, lost income and a permanent injury.
That result is not fair, but fairness alone does not pay a claim. Insurance coverage and evidence do.
Protect Yourself Before the Crash Happens
You cannot control the aggressive driver racing past you on I-95. You cannot control the distracted motorist on Atlantic Avenue or the uninsured driver running a light in Boca Raton.
You can control how you drive, the insurance you purchase and what you do after a collision.
Review your automobile policy. Look specifically for uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Confirm the limits rather than assuming it is included. Ask your insurance professional about the maximum UM coverage available and whether your policy provides stacked or non-stacked coverage.
Being a careful driver is important. Being a properly insured careful driver is even more important.
And when someone else’s recklessness causes a serious injury, you deserve a lawyer who is prepared to investigate the facts, prove what happened and fight for the full value of the claim.
Call my office at (561) 330-6330 to speak to me about your injury or fill out our simple form, if you’d like a complimentary consultation about your particular case.