A friend who ministers to injured bikers recently asked me to share what every biker should know about properly insuring themselves. It’s important to know the pitfalls of improper insurance coverage. After visiting with a parent of an accident victim, he felt the need to let people know that standard insurance coverage DOES NOT properly protect you.
Here are my tips for proper insurance coverage:
DO NOT get on your bike without at least 100/300 in coverage. This means that you have coverage of $100,000 bodily injury liability insurance per person and $300,000 total bodily injury liability insurance per accident. Do not depend on the other guy to have insurance or enough insurance in the event of an accident.
- Uninsured/underinsured coverage
This coverage is designed to help you pay for bills associated with a crash that was caused by another person who either doesn't have an insurance policy or has a policy with liability limits that are too low to cover costs associated with a covered loss.
Put each of your insured vehicles on separate policies. This allows you to stack your coverage, which will double or even triple your protection. It will cost you the 10% bundling discount, but will pay off tenfold in the event of an accident. For example, I recently had a client who had two motorcycles, two cars and an RV. Because he had each vehicle on a separate policy, we were able to stack his coverage. The result was 5 times the coverage.
The insurance companies will not tell you this. Be proactive in protecting yourself and be sure you are properly insured BEFORE you throw your leg over your bike. Contact the Karney Law Firm, NC and SC motorcycle accident lawyers, if you have any questions about your insurance coverage. We’ll review your current coverage and advise you on the proper coverage for your bike.