Personal Injury Protection Auto Insurance

Personal injury protection insurance, or PIP, is insurance specifically relating to injuries of your own person; thus, “personal injury.” It is often an extension of auto insurance and will cover some, if not all, medical expenses and even, sometimes, personal damage related to the injury, but not to the treatment of it – lost wages during recovery, for example, or other similar attributes. PIP payments can be claimed no matter who is at fault in an accident, although they can only cover expenses within the limits set forth in the insurance contract you sign with your specific insurance company. PIP may cover everything from wages to medical expenses to funeral expenses, for everyone from the driver of either vehicle in accidents in which two vehicles are involved, to a pedestrian or pedestrians if the accident involves a vehicle or more than one vehicle and / or pedestrians.

The best auto insurance policies include some of the most important aspects of good insurance and will ensure that you don’t have to face any difficult financial situations on top of the already difficult situation of being injured, or having family members involved in injuries – or, God forbid, even having family members killed with the funeral expenses that such a death incurs.

Good auto insurance should cover these problems, as well as others that may crop up in a serious accident. Uninsured motorist coverage is one important aspect of PIP insurance. If you are involved in a collision with a motorist who is not insured, you may end up having to pay for the damages yourself, especially in a state where the burden of payment rests entirely on the driver at fault. If you live in such a state and the driver at fault doesn’t have adequate insurance – a common enough occurrence especially among young drivers, who generally are also the most likely to be driving without insurance – then uninsured motorist coverage might just be an essential part of your personal injury protection auto insurance plan.

Another important aspect of good auto insurance plans – which, remember, should provide you with a good PIP plan, as well – is collision insurance. Collision coverage generally applies to actual physical damages to the vehicles and property damaged in a collision, often even if the insurance-holder is at fault. Say you got into a car accident with a brand new twenty thousand dollar car and had it entirely totaled – your insurance would be a major step in getting some of that money back and letting you buy a new car. Your insurance appraiser will try to determine the actual cost of the destroyed property, and likely try to weight it favorably on the side of the insurance company. Make sure you keep accurate records and have copies of any paperwork you might keep in the car – they could come in handy if the car is destroyed, and you find yourself resorting to your collision coverage auto insurance for repayment.

All states in the United States require you to have some forms of insurance, generally collision coverage, and bodily injury insurance. Comprehensive policies are almost never required—comprehensive policies are those which cover just about anything that could possibly happen to your property, and thus will reward you in event of theft, fire, flood, crashes, personal injury, or anything else beyond your control. Unfortunately, comprehensive auto insurance policies are often very expensive, and beyond the budgets of many modern American drivers. Even if you don’t plan to buy comprehensive auto insurance, you should know what you’re required to own by law.

Bodily injury insurance and personal property insurance, in one form or another, are, as we said, required in every state, if in different forms in each case. Generally, the main point of difference from state to state is in the minimum payout that must be guaranteed by the insurance provider and bought by the insurance buyer. These can often vary greatly depending on your location, so make sure you research your local insurance laws carefully. If you lived in Alaska, for example, you’d have to own a minimum personal bodily injury plan of a payout of $100,000. In Florida, on the other hand, all you have to own is $10,000 worth.

The details of such plans vary greatly, as well. As regards Personal Injury Protection, regulations vary depending on where in the United States you live. Again, it’s very important to research your local rules to know which options you have to have and which are only that, options. PIP is mandatory in some states, including: Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, and Utah.
Just because it’s not required, though, is no reason not to make sure you’re covered. In general, PIP will pay an average of 80% of the total medical costs of an accident. Suppose hospital bills run you $10,000. With PIP, you end up paying around $2,000. While this is a lot of money to dish out, consider the alternative. Without PIP, you can expect to pay the full $10,000 – five times more than the price you’d pay if you were insured with PIP. The advantage to owning PIP insurance is obvious.

PIP insurance systems are often no fault systems. A no fault system is called such because the fault of the driver isn’t taken into account. In other words, you pay for your own injury, instead of the driver “at fault” in an accident paying for both parties. The reason for this system is obvious – it is almost always difficult to determine which driver is at fault in an accident, and many drivers resort to lawsuits when deemed “at fault” in court. PIP insurance policies have gone over to the no fault system in order to prevent inordinate levels of lawsuits and suing. Thus, PIP systems rarely allow for lawsuits. The rare occasions that a PIP insurance policy might allow for a lawsuit are in very serious cases, such as major injury or death.

The level of personal injury protection insurance you require varies widely, depending on a number of personal factors beyond just the state you live in and the locations in which you drive. For instance, if you are younger, your PIP insurance may be rather more expensive. The reason for this is a purely statistical one – young drivers are far more likely to be involved in serious accidents, making them more expensive in general for insurance companies to insure. Because of this, if you are a young driver, you can probably expect to pay significantly more on your personal injury protection auto insurance. Know the regulations specific to your state and to your age in order to be able to predict exactly how much you’ll be paying on auto insurance. Remember, the age factor applies to more than just your personal injury protection; collision coverage and related insurance factors also apply, so know what you’re dealing with before you settle on any specific policy.

If you’re going to be driving regularly with a specific group – say, in an office carpool or something similar – it might actually be a good idea to know how much personal injury protection your passengers have, in order to know how much you personally will need to legally cover them. While this may seem unimportant or overdoing it, you may very well be glad you did in the unlikely event of an actual serious accident with those passengers in the car. It’s always good to be prepared, especially in terms of finances, and more importantly, lives.

Personal injury protection auto insurance could come in handy in a wide range of situations, so make sure you’re covered before you go out driving. Take the following example and learn from it: two brothers live in the same house, splitting the rent. They drive the same model of cars; they’re both in their early thirties, and they both have clean driving records. In fact, the only real difference between them is that the first brother – call him John – has personal injury protection coverage, and the second – call him Luke (to keep the Biblical theme going) – does not. What difference does it make?

Well, at first, Luke certainly thinks he has the upper hand. He often makes fun of John for having to pay extra fees every month, while he, Luke, can spend that money on things like fast food and chewing gum. Then, one dark and stormy night in late August, a freak coincidence echoes through the time space continuum. Both brothers, in different cars and different parts of the city, but at the exact time, are involved with collisions with other vehicles. Both brothers break an arm and two ribs.

This is odd enough in itself, but it’s really only the effects of these two accidents we are interested in. Because here is where the effects change. John, despite his lack of fast food and chewing gum, has PIP coverage. The hospital charges him eight thousand for his broken arm, and his bank account takes a hit of less than two thousand dollars. Luke, on the other hand, isn’t laughing any more. His injuries also cost him eight thousand dollars, and he has to pay … eight thousand dollars. He’s going to have to abstain from chewing gum and fast food for quite some time, as he works an extra job to pay off his debts.

We already mentioned above the states in which having personal injury protection auto insurance is required. If your state is on that list, start doing some research – it will be required to varying degrees depending on where you live, so do some local research. Check the Internet, call local insurance agents, and ask friends who have lived in and paid car insurance in the state for a long time. It’s always important to make sure you are following the law.

On the other hand, if your state does not require personal injury protection auto insurance, it’s still definitely worth looking into. If you are in a serious accident, as the example above shows, personal injury protection can really help you shoulder the burden. Medical costs can be very difficult to pay for, especially if you don’t make a lot of money, or are in one of the sectors of society which the insurance companies charge more to cover. If you have a bad record, you may also have some trouble paying your insurance premiums. That’s actually rather an important point to make – just as your driving record may influence your insurance costs negatively if you’ve been in accidents or had speeding tickets, you can actually improve your driving insurance by adding good marks onto your record: for instance, you can take defensive driving courses to improve your driving ability and thus save money on insurance. Really, defensive driving is an important skill whether you’re thinking about money or not. Saving money is great – saving lives is exponentially better. No matter how good your insurance is, don’t flirt with death.