Say I have a really off day of driving and cause a really bad accident. Maybe I get distracted by a passing bird, crash my car into a daycare center, and cause a bunch of poor little kids to need expensive prosthetic arms for life. Maybe I accidentally swerve when I shouldn't have and cause a truck full of Teslas to careen off a cliff and down a mountain. Maybe I didn't put two and two together when someone stopped at a light and I hit a car carrying a three million dollar work of art, which I break.

How much of the costs resulting from these sorts of accidents would I end up having to pay? Is there a distinction between causing an accident because you disobeyed the rules of the road on purpose and causing an accident because you fail to react in time to dangerous conditions? If my poor driving skills cause thirteen million dollars in damage or some absurd figure, am I and my insurance supposed to produce a lump sum of thirteen million dollars to pay for fixing it? Or some particular amount per month until death, followed by the seizure of the estate? What happens to assets that the person at fault owns?

What is the typical amount of damages awarded in a normal car accident? Should one plan around the typical, or the maximum? Is there a minimum amount of insurance that if you can't afford it, you should give up driving and confine your life to cities?