Motorcycle rider killed in accident - Who should pay for the loss?

Author Information

Juanita Martinez has 5 Published Articles

United States of America,
California,
San Francisco,
297,
Hale Street

Motorcycle rider killed in accident - Who should pay for the loss?

Posted On : Nov-02-2010 | seen (636) times | Article Word Count : 612 |

If a person riding your motorcycle dies in an accident and the other party is at fault, then you can demand bodily injury coverage from the other party. If required, you can also file a lawsuit to demand the required amount if your personal injury protection coverage is not enough to pay for the entire cost of medical treatment.

Scenario:

I don't know much about insurance. So, I need your suggestion. 1 year back, my stepfather was severely injured in a motorcycle accident and he died after some days. The bike on which he was riding belonged to me. I am insured through an XYZ company. I should mention here that my stepfather was not at fault for the accident. A teenager boy caused the accident by hitting the motorcycle. My insurance company has paid the cost of repairing the motorcycle and gave back my $600 deductible amount. However, I have bodily injury liability of about $55,000. I want to know am I entitled to anything else other than what I've received from my insurance company? I also want to know who should pay for the loss?

Solution:

Before answering your query, I sincerely express my condolences to you and your family members for your personal loss. It is the duty of one and all to ride car/bike safely in order to prevent such fatal accidents on road.

You have mentioned that your insurance company has compensated for the replacement/repairing cost of your motorcycle. It is also mentioned that you've got back $600 as the deductible amount. So, it can be assumed that your insurance company has been able to retrieve the amount (that it has paid you) from the other party's (who's at fault for the accident) insurance company. It may also be due to the fact that your insurance company has decided to pay you a certain amount since you've maintained a clean driving record and paid your insurance premiums on time.

You want to know whether or not you're entitled to receive more coverage from your insurance company. When you purchase bodily injury liability coverage, the insurance company covers the bodily injury liability (up to the limit specified) when the policyholder or someone driving the policyholder's motorcycle is responsible for causing injury to the other party. So, in your case, the other party should pay for the bodily injury of your stepfather.

You can demand a certain amount from the other party because of the bodily injury caused to your stepfather due to the accident. It may happen that your personal injury protection coverage was not enough to cover the cost of entire medical treatment. So, you can always demand the extra amount from the other party. If required, you can also file a lawsuit demanding the bodily injury coverage from the other party. However, when an attorney represents you in court, usually you need to pay about one third of the settlement amount as professional fees.

Thus, if a person riding your motorcycle gets injured in an accident, you cannot get anything from your insurance company other than the personal injury protection coverage. However, if your father had purchased final expense insurance (irrespective of whether or not from your insurer), then the named beneficiary of the policy should have borne the cost of funeral expenses. So, if you've paid for the funeral expenses of your stepfather out of your pocket and you're not the beneficiary of the final expense insurance policy, then you can ask the beneficiary to refund you the required amount.

Do you have any more questions to ask? You can simply post your query in insurance forums and the industry experts will answer them. This is one of the easiest ways to get answers to insurance questions. You can browse through the internet to choose such an insurance forum where you can get help to solve your insurance related queries.

Re-Publish this Article

<h1>Motorcycle rider killed in accident - Who should pay for the loss?</h1> Author: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/profile_Juanita Martinez.aspx'>Juanita Martinez</a> Scenario:

I don't know much about insurance. So, I need your suggestion. 1 year back, my stepfather was severely injured in a motorcycle accident and he died after some days. The bike on which he was riding belonged to me. I am insured through an XYZ company. I should mention here that my stepfather was not at fault for the accident. A teenager boy caused the accident by hitting the motorcycle. My insurance company has paid the cost of repairing the motorcycle and gave back my $600 deductible amount. However, I have bodily injury liability of about $55,000. I want to know am I entitled to anything else other than what I've received from my insurance company? I also want to know who should pay for the loss?

Solution:

Before answering your query, I sincerely express my condolences to you and your family members for your personal loss. It is the duty of one and all to ride car/bike safely in order to prevent such fatal accidents on road.

You have mentioned that your insurance company has compensated for the replacement/repairing cost of your motorcycle. It is also mentioned that you've got back $600 as the deductible amount. So, it can be assumed that your insurance company has been able to retrieve the amount (that it has paid you) from the other party's (who's at fault for the accident) insurance company. It may also be due to the fact that your insurance company has decided to pay you a certain amount since you've maintained a clean driving record and paid your insurance premiums on time.

You want to know whether or not you're entitled to receive more coverage from your insurance company. When you purchase bodily injury liability coverage, the insurance company covers the bodily injury liability (up to the limit specified) when the policyholder or someone driving the policyholder's motorcycle is responsible for causing injury to the other party. So, in your case, the other party should pay for the bodily injury of your stepfather.

You can demand a certain amount from the other party because of the bodily injury caused to your stepfather due to the accident. It may happen that your personal injury protection coverage was not enough to cover the cost of entire medical treatment. So, you can always demand the extra amount from the other party. If required, you can also file a lawsuit demanding the bodily injury coverage from the other party. However, when an attorney represents you in court, usually you need to pay about one third of the settlement amount as professional fees.

Thus, if a person riding your motorcycle gets injured in an accident, you cannot get anything from your insurance company other than the personal injury protection coverage. However, if your father had purchased final expense insurance (irrespective of whether or not from your insurer), then the named beneficiary of the policy should have borne the cost of funeral expenses. So, if you've paid for the funeral expenses of your stepfather out of your pocket and you're not the beneficiary of the final expense insurance policy, then you can ask the beneficiary to refund you the required amount.

Do you have any more questions to ask? You can simply post your query in insurance forums and the industry experts will answer them. This is one of the easiest ways to get answers to insurance questions. You can browse through the internet to choose such an insurance forum where you can get help to solve your insurance related queries.About the Author: Juanita Martinez is associated with the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ampminsure.org/">AmPmInsure</a> Community and has been offering her suggestion on insurance to the community since 2007. Besides this, she has also written contributory articles for various financial sites. Few of her articles would include names like 'Ho3 Policy: An open peril insurance', 'Insurance for fire damages' and 'Buying life insurance on someone without their consent'. Article Source: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Motorcycle-rider-killed-in-accident-Who-should-pay-for-the-loss_40258.aspx'> http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Motorcycle rider killed in accident - Who should pay for the loss?_40258.aspx</a>

Article Source : http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Motorcycle rider killed in accident - Who should pay for the loss?_40258.aspx

Author Resource :
Juanita Martinez is associated with the AmPmInsure Community and has been offering her suggestion on insurance to the community since 2007. Besides this, she has also written contributory articles for various financial sites. Few of her articles would include names like 'Ho3 Policy: An open peril insurance', 'Insurance for fire damages' and 'Buying life insurance on someone without their consent'.

Keywords : answers to insurance questions,

Category : Finance : Insurance

Print this Article Send to Friend