Whether you ride a motorcycle or a bicycle, you are more vulnerable to sustaining a serious injury if you are hit by a car. Serious injuries result in permeant disabilities that significantly decrease your quality of life and result in loss income. Yet, in New York State the minimum required insurance coverage for bodily injury claims is only $25,000 per person.
To be blunt, if being hit by a car results in your losing an arm or a leg, then the maximum payout on your bodily injury claim could be a mere $25,000. Lawyers call this an underinsured claim.
You can avoid being in an uninsured situation by purchasing the maximum amount of underinsurance coverage available. This type of coverage is known as SUM / Supplemental Uninsured Motorist.
Presently, the maximum amount of UM / SUM coverage available in NY is $500,000, which is a CSL coverage that will pay one person up to $500,000 for pain and suffering. If more than one person is injured in the accident, then the total payments under the SUM $500,000 CSL coverage cannot exceed $500,000. Increasing your SUM coverage from the minimum required coverage of $25,000 per person to $500,000 may cost as little as $15 per month.
If you own a motorcycle, then you need to have this coverage on the policy that your motorcycle is insured under. If you have $250,000 of SUM coverage on your car or truck, but only $25,000 on your motorcycle, then you might not be able to use the $250,000 if you are injured while riding your motorcycle.
You can get an instant online quite to see how much this additional coverage will cost. You should grab your existing insurance policy right now and check your coverages. If you don’t have at least $250,000 SUM coverage, you should increase your coverage immediately.
You need to have this coverage in place before the accident. You cannot purchase it after the accident.
You shouldn’t delay. Don’t be sorry.