“I Got Hit by a Guy Without Car Insurance…Now What?”
October 21, 2014
image courtesy imagerymajestic/freedigitalphotos.net
You’re driving to work minding your own business when you get rear ended by a guy texting his girlfriend. He never even slowed down and he hit you pretty badly. The airbags burst open and you slam into them, spraining your neck and breaking your arm.
This is bad for anyone, but it’s big trouble for you because you’re a surgeon and now you’re out of work. You might be out for months or even longer, depending on how everything heals. You have obviously suffered a huge loss, not only in medical bills but also in lost income.
The problem…the other guy who hit you owns the car but doesn’t have any insurance. You sue him but he doesn’t own anything, doesn’t have any assets, or even a job.
Now what?
You don’t have to be a surgeon to suffer a devastating loss if you are struck by a car without insurance. Yes, you have No-Fault coverages on your own auto policy to pay medical bills and some loss of wages, but your pain and suffering and financial loss due to the accident could easily be more than the underlying coverages on your policy.
How do you keep the household up, your family’s expenses paid, and your job when you’re laid up recovering from a serious car accident?
Get a Simple, Easy Auto Insurance Coverage to Protect You From the “Other Guy”
Believe it or not, you can get insurance that pays you if you win a lawsuit against another person without insurance. It’s the Uninsured Motorist Insurance on your auto policy.
So, in the example above, you rightfully sue the driver of the car that hit you and you win a judgment in court. Say you win the lawsuit and are awarded by the court $200,000 to pay for your pain and suffering and for loss of work. But the other guy can’t pay.
You can actually collect the same amount on your own policy from your Uninsured Motorist Insurance. This is a mandatory coverage in New York State with minimum limits of 25,000 each person for bodily injury and 50,000 for the whole accident. (These are the same as the minimum Liability Bodily Injury Limits.)
The thing is, you must have high enough limits on your policy to be able to collect.
At Scalzo, Zogby & Wittig we recommend additional limits of Uninsured Motorist Insurance to our clients. And it costs very little to raise limits to $100,000/300,000 or 250/500,000 of Uninsured Motorist. We’re talking about premiums of around $35 or so per car on your policy.
One of the best things about all of this, when you purchase Uninsured Motorist coverage with us, you automatically get Underinsured Motorist. If you win the same lawsuit we talked about above but the “other guy” had insurance but with lower limits than the judgment, you can collect the difference.
So, if he had the New York State minimum limit of $25,000 per person liability, you would collect the $25,000 from his insurance and $175,000 from your Underinsured Motorist Insurance (if you had an Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage amount of 250,000/500,000).
Call us today for more information on this very important and inexpensive coverage on your auto insurance policy. It’s easy to increase and will give you the peace of mind that you deserve with so many “other guys” out there.
Until next time,
Your SZW Team
Scalzo, Zogby & Wittig, Inc. is your New Hartford area independent insurance agent. Call us for a quote on insurance for your home, car, business, or life at 315.792.0000.
