If you find yourself sitting at a stoplight, county out seven cars around you and guess which driver doesn’t have insurance. That’s how many cars are on the road uninsured according to the Insurance Research Council. That means that out of around 5.5 million accidents that happened in 2009, nearly 770,000 involved an uninsured driver.

Typically as unemployment rates drop, the number of uninsured drivers on the road does too, but it’s not a good idea to take this gamble. “The best way to protect yourself financially from other drivers and your own mistakes is to make sure you have enough auto insurance coverage,” said Dre Fleury, a North Carolina attorney for Crumley Roberts, specializing in injuries incurred in automobile accidents, in a news release. “The minimum required coverage is definitely not enough, and ideally, you want to have more than enough.”

Experts who deal with accidents involving uninsured drivers say they cause emotional and physical damage daily. The best way to protect yourself financially is to set aside money in your monthly budget for auto insurance. “Policies can be very detailed and highly personalized, but the key areas you want to review are liability and uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage,” said Fleury. “Medical payments coverage or MedPay is also a great thing to have in your policy, because it basically gives you instant cash following an accident.” MedPay is very affordable and can be purchased for as little as $20 a year for up to $10,000 in coverage. “If you have an older car and no loan, one coverage area you actually may be able to decrease is collision and comprehensive, which can represent 30-40 percent of your total premium cost,” said Fleury. “But I would strongly suggest using any savings to boost your liability, uninsured motorist and medical payments coverage.”

It’s not just what’s on the road that can cause teen drivers to crash– it’s also about who’s sitting next to them. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm conducted a study to identify factors that can lead teen drivers with multiple peer passengers to get into an accident. “These studies help us understand the factors that may predispose teens to drive with multiple friends and how those passengers may contribute to crashes by distracting the driver and promoting risky driving behaviors, such as speeding, tailgating, or weaving,” said study author Allison Curry, PhD, director of epidemiology at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention in a news release. “Knowing this, we can develop programs that work in tandem with current Graduated Driver Licensing laws that limit the number of passengers for teens during their first year of driving.”

Nearly 200 teen drivers were surveyed and experts found that those who are most likely to drive with multiple passengers are those that consider themselves thrill-seekers, those whose parents don’t set rules or monitor their whereabouts, or those who don’t understand the risks of driving in general. “The good news is that that these teens make up the minority,” said Jessica Mirman, PhD, study author and a behavioral researcher in a news release. “Teens in this study generally reported strong perceptions of the risks of driving, low frequencies of driving with multiple passengers, and strong beliefs that their parents monitored their behavior and set rules.”

Another study looked at what was happening to distract the teen driver just before they crashed. Males with passengers are nearly six times more likely to break a road rule and twice as likely to drive aggressively before a crash. “Both male and female teen drivers with peer passengers were more likely to be distracted just before a crash as compared to teens who crashed while driving alone,” explained Dr. Curry. “Among the teens who said they were distracted by something inside the vehicle before they crashed, 71 percent of males and 47 percent of females said they were distracted directly by the actions of their passengers.”

The study found that parents play an important role in safe teen driving. Setting house rules of no non-sibling teen passengers for the first six months of driving can help limit accidents. “Most teens take driving seriously and act responsibly behind the wheel. However, some may not realize how passengers can directly affect their driving,” said Dr. Mirman. “Teen passengers can intentionally and unintentionally encourage unsafe driving. Because it can be difficult for new drivers to navigate the rules of the road and manage passengers, it’s best to keep the number of passengers to a minimum for the first year.”

A new study shows Americans are increasingly preferring to purchase their life insurance directly from the company either on the Internet, through the mail or over the phone. Two-thirds of Americans still prefer to buy life insurance from an insurance or financial professional, but a growing number like the idea of buying it directly.

Now more than one in four prefer this method. “‘Obviously, the Internet has fundamentally changed consumers’ buying practices over the past 15 years,” said Marvin H. Feldman, CLU, ChFC, RFC, president and CEO of the LIFE Foundation in a news release. “Recognizing the growing consumer interest to use the Internet to conduct research and buy life insurance, life insurance companies and agents have developed and implemented innovative strategies to engage and serve consumers through their websites and social media platforms that are more convenient for the customer.”

The study found that younger consumers have the most interest in making life insurance purchases directly from the company. Roughly one in three in the 25-44 age bracket say they would prefer to buy direct, with most saying the Internet was their vehicle of choice. This information was recently released in a new LIFE Foundation/LIMRA study called “The 2011 Insurance Barometer Study.” But no matter how they purchase it, most people agree that life insurance is a necessity, with 86% saying that most people need it.