Oregon Car Insurance Laws

Every state in the union has laws on the books with regards to car insurance coverage by drivers, and Oregon is no exception to this fact. The northwestern state over the years has passed its own statutory requirements spelling out the minimum insurance car drivers must have at all times when traveling on public roads.

This collective body of laws and regulations represent Oregon’s minimum requirements for any driver operating within the state. Enter your ZIP code into our FREE car insurance tool to start comparing rates to save money now!

What’s Included

Oregon’s insurance requirements include three components of coverage which car insurance companies check your credit in order to give you: bodily injury, property damage, and personal injury. Each category is treated in terms of dollars and how much an injury by a driver could be. The goal is to make sure no matter who a driver is, there is some sort of monetary recovery for a party injured by the driver’s actions with a car.

The specific car insurance coverage required is specified in Oregon law as a minimum level of car insurance that any quotes must have. These include:

• Bodily injury coverage of at least $25,000 per person or $50,000 per accident to another party.
• Property damage coverage of at least $20,000 per incident where another party has suffered damage by the actions of a driver.
• Personal injury coverage of at least $15,000 which addresses medical costs of the driver and passengers in the driver’s car that get hurt. This includes medical, hospital, dental, surgical, and follow-up costs from the point of injury for one year up to the aforementioned dollar cap. Additionally, this coverage can include both burial expenses as well as child care or other necessary costs as a result of an injury recovery.
• Uninsured motorist coverage of up to $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. This coverage could be concurrent with the bodily injury coverage noted above.

Anything above these minimum requirements in state law is discretionary and essentially agreed to between a driver and his vehicle insurance provider aside from Oregon’s laws.

Non-Residents and State Monitoring

Out-of-town drivers traveling through Oregon need to pay attention to that state’s rules when traveling within Oregon’s borders. Most states tend to have similar requirements, but the dollar amounts per coverage type could vary a bit.

Proof of insurance is required every time a vehicle is registered in the state of Oregon, which certifies then that the minimum level of coverage that meets the above requirements is in place on that vehicle.

The Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles proactively reviews drivers’ files and checks with insurance providers if insurance is in fact in place. Where the DMV finds a violation, the driver’s license can be suspended. To avoid this potential problem, drivers should always travel in Oregon with their proof of insurance card from their car insurance provider on their person. Both law enforcement and the DMV can request the proof and examine it under state law.

Penalties

Not surprisingly, driving without the minimum insurance coverage in place or proof of it can result in both civil and criminal penalties for the driver caught. Oregon, like other states, tends to take a progressive discipline approach to the issue, with first offenders receiving fines and repeat offenders being sentenced with stiffer penalties. However, where actions are egregious, the court can always impose more severe penalties which can include a vehicle being impounded.

Most initial convictions also require a proof of insurance being filed with DMV ahead of time before any driving occurs for the next three years after the conviction.

This restriction is in addition to any fines charged. Where a crash or impact accident was involved with driving uninsured, the driver’s authority to drive at all is suspended for one year.

After the one year expires, then the three years of proof of insurance must then occur, resulting in a total of four years of driving restriction.

Failure to file in either case results in a driver’s license suspension. In order to avoid trouble with car insurance laws, use our FREE car insurance tool with your ZIP code.

The best advice to follow when in Oregon is to simply have a good car insurance policy in place before getting behind the wheel of a car. Without it, life just gets a whole lot more difficult for the driver. In order to find the best car insurance policy for you, enter your ZIP code into our FREE auto insurance comparison tool now!