Sam Trumbull: DC’s outdated insurance laws are failing victims — and Councilmember McDuffie’s committee could fix it

I was born in 1986. Marion Barry had just started his third term as mayor. The space shuttle Challenger disaster had shocked the nation. The Washington football team made it to the NFC championship game as a wild card. And, while seatbelts had been mandatory for 18 years, fewer than 60% of people used them regularly.

It was also the year DC’s current car insurance minimums were set. The council established required coverage at 25/50/10: $25,000 in available coverage per person for bodily injury, $50,000 in available coverage per crash for bodily injury, and $10,000 in available coverage per crash for property damage. Thirty-nine years later, the legal minimum insurance in DC still only covers $25,000 in injuries per person, with a cap of $50,000 total per crash — leaving victims with even less if multiple people are involved.

If you’ve ever been in a crash, you know the back-and-forth with your insurer over what’s covered, what deductibles apply, and what they won’t pay. Now imagine doing that from a hospital bed, awake only a few hours a day, while facing life-altering injuries and enormous medical bills.

I know this firsthand.

My crash — caused by a presumably drunk driver who was on the way home from a football game — broke my leg in two places, fractured and displaced my pelvis, broke my thumb, and knocked out three of my teeth. The first night in the hospital alone cost more than $25,000. Since that day in 2012, I’ve had six orthopedic surgeries, four dental surgeries, dental implants, and a decade of physical therapy.

While it’s sometimes possible to recover more than the policy limits, it’s rare. Doing so generally requires garnishing someone’s wages over years — and hiring a lawyer to fight through lengthy negotiations or costly trials. Either way, the bills don’t wait.

On average, something that cost $25,000 in 1986 would take about $75,000 to purchase today. But health care costs in particular have risen even faster — around 4.6% per year. By that measure, $25,000 in 1986 medical expenses equals about $145,000 today. Yet DC’s minimums have stood still for nearly 40 years.

In December 2024, at-large Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie — chair of the Committee on Business and Economic Development — held a hearing on the Motor Vehicle Insurance Modernization Act, introduced several times since 2019 by Council Chair Phil Mendelson and now under consideration as B26-0057. I testified at that hearing alongside Jessica Hart of DC Families for Safe Streets and members of the DC Trial Lawyers Association.

Jessica and I both described ourselves as being among the “lucky ones” in a financial sense. Jessica’s daughter, Allie, was killed in a crosswalk in Brookland in 2021, leaving funeral costs but no ongoing medical bills. In my case, I had elective underinsured driver coverage of $300,000. After all claims and accounting for more than $100,000 my health insurer clawed back, I received a total of about $180,000. It covered my immediate bills, about a year late, but not my lifelong costs as a permanently disabled person.

That this is a “best-case scenario” is unacceptable.

As written, the bill raises minimum levels to:

• $50,000 in available coverage per person for bodily injury
• $100,000 in available coverage for bodily injury for all injured people in the crash
• $20,000 for property damage liability

This is progress. But it still falls far short of today’s realities! As the legislation’s introductory statement acknowledges, these amounts don’t begin to match the actual costs associated with medical care today. I strongly encourage the council to increase these minimums to $100,000 in available coverage per person for bodily injury and $300,000 in available coverage for bodily injury for all injured people in the crash, and to ensure that the minimums automatically adjust with inflation.

A big concern at last year’s hearing, brought up repeatedly by insurance company executives, was the issue of premium amounts. They tried to sow fear on the council and among the general public about the costs of insurance skyrocketing as a result of this change. 

That claim does not hold up. Data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners shows that premiums did not spike in states that raised their minimums. In fact, premiums rose more slowly — 1.47% annually, compared to the national average of 1.95%.

Driving a vehicle capable of tremendous speeds around other people is a huge responsibility. It’s long past time we ensure adequate coverage for the victims of those who fail to take that responsibility seriously. The council must act — and act boldly — to bring DC’s car insurance into the 21st century.

Sam Trumbull is a nonprofit executive and policy strategist with more than a decade of experience in climate, food and agriculture. A survivor of a devastating crash in September 2012 that left her with lifelong injuries, she now advocates for stronger protections for victims of traffic violence, drawing on both her professional background in systems change and her lived experience dealing with the failures of the current insurance system.

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