Required and optional auto insurance coverages

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Your Source For Understanding Insurance

Bodily Injury and Accident Insurance

What you should do if this happens to you!

Ways to save on your auto insurance

Shop around and compare prices. A list of companies can be found in your local yellow pages of your phone book.

Maintain a good driving record.

Take the highest deductible the insurance will allow for collision and comprehensive coverage. A higher deductible will lower your premium.

More ways to save!

Additional Insurance Coverages

Collision Coverage:
Pays for physical damage to your car as the result of your vehicle colliding with an object, such as a tree or another car.

Comprehensive Coverage:
Pays for damage to your car from almost all other causes besides an accident, including fire, severe weather, theft, vandalism, and flood. This coverage also includes broken glass.

Uninsured Motorist Coverage:
Pays to cover you if you are involved in an accident and the other driver does not have insurance or if you are struck by a hit and run driver.

Under-insured motorist coverage:
Protects you if you are involved in a car accident that is not your fault and the other driver does not have enough insurance to cover you.

Towing and labor:
Pays the cost of towing your car to the repair shop subject to the limit stated in your policy. Rental Reimbursement coverage pays for the cost to rent a car after an accident, subject to a set limit.

No-Fault Insurance:
Regardless who is at fault for an accident, there are twelve states that have adopted no-fault laws which restricts the right to sue for minor bodily injuries and provide personal injury protection benefits. These states include; Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Utah. These laws vary among states. The insurance company will determine when an injury qualifies for a liability claim or lawsuit against the at-fault driver based on the amount of medical expense, days of disability, or severity of injury.

Three of the mentioned no-fault states (Kentucky, Pennsylvania and New Jersey) offer choice no-fault laws. This means that you can choose to operate under no-fault, because it reduces the amount of insurance premiums. If you operate under no-fault, you can only file a bodily injury claim against the at-fault driver if your injury is serious. If you reject no-fault coverage (only in the 3 states above) you are free to sue other drivers in the event of an accident.

More Information:
Repairing Your Vehicle

Additional Insurance Coverages

Insurance Terms

Safety Issues

State Limits

Statistics

In 2005, there were nearly 6,420,000 auto accidents in the United States.

About 115 people die every day in vehicle crashes in the United States, estimating one death every 13 minutes.

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens, accounting for 36% of all deaths in this age group.

California leads the nation in traffic fatalities. More than 4,000 sustain serious injuries, such as quadriplegia, paraplegia, brain injuries, and spinal cord injuries.

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