We recently met with a potential new client who was badly injured in a motorcycle accident. He was forced to lay his bike down by a spare tire that had somehow gotten free from its anchor on the back of a recreational vehicle, and was bouncing down the highway in our motorcyclist’s direction. Whether the driver of the RV knew about the accident or not, he didn’t stick around to see how bad our potential client’s injuries actually were. They were bad — broken bones, internal injuries, and a head injury — all because somebody forgot to make sure this spare tire was secure.
At first, we were very skeptical about whether we were going to be able to help this really nice guy. We knew this motorcyclist had big medical bills from his stay in the ICU of the hospital, and we knew we weren’t going to be able to identify or track down the RV.
We were really glad to learn that our biker had elected to buy Uninsured Motorist coverage for his motorcycle. Uninsured Motorist (UM) coverage is the coverage that a motorcyclist can buy to protect himself if he is injured by a driver who has no insurance, or cannot be identified. UM acts just like liability coverage would — if the negligent driver was identifiable or bothered to carry insurance. UM coverage pays not only medical bills, but also lost wages, out-of-pocket expenses, and also intangible damages like pain and suffering, inconvenience, and disability and impairment.
Having seen a lot of these situations over the past 18 years as an Orlando accident attorney, I believe that every motorcyclist should carry UM coverage – and not just any uninsured motorist coverage – I believe that the best protection comes from stacking UM coverage. Stacking coverage allows a motorcyclist to stack his UM coverage with other vehicles in his household to further expand his coverage. It really is the best protection a motorcyclist can have, particularly in these hard economic times when many drivers are electing not to carry liability (or any) insurance on their cars.
If you have any questions regarding a Florida motorcycle accident, or Uninsured motorist coverage for motorcycles, call Orlando motorcyle accident attorney Kim Cullen at 407-644-4444.
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