Rilynn Company Inc.: Carry Full Coverage...or Else

Rilynn Company Inc.: Carry Full Coverage...or Else:      Traffic slows down at the common rush hour times in Southern California daily and without fail. You can set your watch on it and I...

Carry Full Coverage...or Else

     Traffic slows down at the common rush hour times in Southern California daily and without fail. You can set your watch on it and I have realized for every minute I take to leave adds ten minutes to my trip time. Not a very good ratio so I decided to buy a motorcycle and start really moving around the Southland. By some accounts, it is legal to split lanes in stalled traffic and a motorcycle can move a lot faster than a passenger vehicle.

     So my motorcycle was a thrill to ride and it was not very expensive. My commute times were slashed and I was happy to be on the road again with the wind in my…helmet. The insurance to drive the bike was cheap enough and I did not bother to get Comprehensive or Collision coverage because I didn’t care about the bike and it wasn’t worth the expense. Besides, if I crashed the bike and it was my fault then I would deal with the consequences and move on with life.

     The story begins one day while I was driving a familiar patch of pavement and like clockwork the traffic slowed and I went in between lanes. A driver in the left lane decided his lane was not going fast enough and swerved into the center lane, however, this 19 year old driver did not use a blinker or check his blind spot. You guessed it; I was next to him going about twenty miles per hour.

     With no time to stop or even brake I remember seeing his front passenger wheel suddenly get really close to me. Hitting between the wheel and the door, I was launched thirty feet into the air and came as close to Superman flying as humanly possible. Thankfully, I tucked my head and did a flip in the air so I landed on my shoulder and not my face. My flip was so fast my dress shoes flew off and I banged my ankles and feet so hard on the pavement I had bruises for weeks.

     To my joy, traffic had suddenly stopped in all three lanes from where I was hit and I stood up and braced for an additional impact of someone hitting me. But nothing came and the headlights illuminated me in an unwanted spotlight. After the initial adrenaline rush, I hobbled over to the median and crumpled down under my own weight as my ankles gave out in pain.

     After the police, ambulance and reports were done, I waited for my father in-law to bring a flatbed trailer to bring my totaled bike home. The next day I called his insurance company to find out what to do next. To my horror, I was put at 50% at fault by the insurance company for this accident and determined to be going too fast for traffic conditions.

     The insurance company I had would not help me because I did not have full coverage on my motorcycle. Even though they agreed I was not at fault, they could not do anything because they were not involved. If there was a lawsuit against me they would pay but not the other way around. It was up to me to fight the insurance company for anything owed to me. Overall, I had to settle for 50% of all my injuries, bike damage and lost wages at work.

     Sure, I could have fought it in court and spent many thousands of dollars to get back a few thousand. I was not mad at the situation because it was an accident, I was mad at myself for trying to save a few bucks and not having the coverage. In life you get what you pay for; that holds true for your insurance coverage. So the next time you need to cut costs, look somewhere other than your insurance. Insurance is for accidents, and you can’t plan those, you can only prepare and have full coverage.