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Motorcycle Insurance
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Do you have enough insurance to protect both you and your family if you are injured in a motorcycle accident?
Let's start with what minimum coverage is. This is called Liability Insurance. That is the level of insurance that the state says you must carry on your vehicle to legally drive on the road. In most states, that means you must carry a 15000/30000 injury liability policy with 5000 property damage coverage. Once you have that, you are free to ride. The question is, should you? The answer is NO.
Did your agent tell you that you have "full coverage"? If all you have
is liability, then you don't have full coverage. If all you have is liability and collision you still don't have full coverage. Med pay, liability and collision- nope, you STILL don't have full coverage.
Liability insurance protects the other person- the one that you hit in an accident that is your fault. It does not protect you at all.
Collision coverage will fix your bike or pay out a total loss on your bike if it is damaged regardless of fault. It will not replace your bike or pay you to get a brand new bike. If you are hit by someone who is uninsured, or are involved in an at-fault accident, you will need to use your collision coverage to repair/payoff your bike. It will cover all repairs on the bike as long as the repairs do not exceed the value of the bike. If they do, your insurance will not repair your bike but it will pay you the actual cash value of your bike, less certain items. They will deduct your deductible- your carrier will not waive your deductible- you paid for coverage that had a deductible so you have to live with it. It may seem like a good idea to have a high deductible at first since it will lower you insurance cost but remember, you carrier will subtract that from the total loss payment that they give you.
You don't have a choice as far as repairing the bike or getting a total loss payout. Your carrier will generally take the less expensive (cheapest) way out.
Also, it is important to note that if you are forced to use your own insurance to repair your bike, many of your after-market extras, chrome, and other items put on your bike that are not stock items may NOT be covered. Many insurance policies will exclude these items...unless they have some type of extras coverage you can buy. Often it will cover 1000 or 3500 dollars of your extras. Remember, you only get that coverage IF you pay for it. ASK your company if you are not sure.
Remember, all repair costs and extras would be paid by the other party if they are insured and if they have enough coverage to repair your bike. Again, don't rely on the other party having enough or any insurance to pay for your repairs; PROTECT YOURSELF.
Uninsured Motorist: This is the most mis-understood yet the most important type of coverage that a motorcycle rider should have. We recommend a minimum of 100,000 dollars of Uninsured Motorist coverage when you ride. This will help pay for your injuries if you are hurt in an accident that is not your fault and the other party is either not insured at all or under-insured (he does not have enough liability insurance to pay for your injuries).
Here is a real-life example right from one of our clients. First of all, he was told he had *full* coverage. He knew that he had met the California liability requirements and he had coverage that would fix his bike if damaged. He was never told about uninsured motorist by his broker so he didn't carry it. The accident was not his fault. The other guy had a 15,000 dollar policy. Our client suffered a severe break to his right arm requiring surgery, a metal plate and 10 metal pins to hold it in place. He received 15,000 dollars for that injury. He will always carry the scar, he will always have a plate in his arm and he will have problems with that arm most likely for the rest of his life...and he only got 15,000 dollars.
If he had carried the recommended 100,000 dollars of uninsured coverage, he would have been able to collect an additional 85,000 dollars from his own carrier because he had protected himself.
Uninsured motorist coverage is the most important coverage you can have when you ride a motorcycle. Don't bet or hope the other party is insured or insured enough...you need to protect yourself and your family if you are injured in an accident.
Med Pay: Med pay is a coverage, usually in the amount of 5000 dollars, that will cover your medical bills if you are injured. It will only pay bills up to the amount that you purchase in your coverage. Do you need med pay? If you have health insurance, the answer is probably no. If you are injured, your heath insurance will cover all of your bills. You may have to pay them back when your case settles but since you already pay for health care, why double pay? If you do not have health insurance, it is probably a good idea to have med pay on your policy. Often, even when you are not at fault, it may take months for the other side to pay for medical bills and not all doctors are willing to wait for payment. Med pay will help insure that you get medical care as soon as you need it.
Yes, it does cost more to ride fully protected but in the end you will feel better about riding knowing that you and your family are protected if you suffer a serious injury.
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Kirby, Kirby and Kirby • Motorcycle Accident Injury Lawyers Attorneys
Licensed in California, Arizona, and Nevada • 800-699-9097
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