In Florida, insurance is not required for the owner and rider of a motorcycle. And the PIP coverage a motorcycle owner may have on his car, will not cover the owner if injured in a motorcycle accident.

PIP Coverage

As you may know, PIP coverage is Florida's no-fault auto insurance that pays 80% of your medical bills and 60% of your lost wages for an automobile accident, no matter who is at fault . This coverage is required if you own a car, but will not cover you if you are in a motorcycle accident. Some insurance companies do offer a special motorcycle PIP coverage that is similar to the coverage offered for an automobile. In addition, you may wish to consider the following coverage if you own and ride motorcycles.

Property Damage Coverage

Property Damage (PD) liability coverage protects you if you damage someone else's property with your motorcycle by driving negligently. It does not protect you for any bodily injury the other person sustains due to your negligence.

Liability (Bodily Injury) Coverage

If you are injured in an accident, you may be entitled to collect damages from the at fault party for the medical bills and lost wages not paid by PIP and for your pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life and mental anguish from the driver or owner's Liability or Bodily Injury Coverage. However, the at fault party must have Bodily Injury (BI) liability insurance for you to be able to make a claim against his/her insurance company for those damages. If the at fault party only has PIP and PD, there won't be any insurance available from the at fault driver to pay for any of your damages. Regrettably, a large number of drivers do NOT carry Bodily Injury coverage. That makes the purchase of Uninsured Motorist coverage extremely important to you and your family.

Uninsured Motorist Coverage

If you are injured in a motorcycle accident, the negligent person's Bodily Injury (BI) liability coverage may cover your medical bills, lost wage and pain & suffering. However, what if your bills, lost wages and pain & suffering exceed the the careless driver's insurance coverage? Or worse, what if the person that causes the motorcycle accident has no BI coverage at all?

Uninsured Motorist coverage (UM) takes the place of the BI coverage that the negligent driver and can supplement the BI coverage if it is insufficient to cover all your damages. Since most motorcycle accidents result in serious injuries to the rider, many minimum BI policies (often only $10,000) are not enough to cover all the motorcyclist's damages. When you consider UM coverage, you may wish to consider "stacked" UM coverage. Stacked coverage allows you to use the add or "stack" UM coverage for the different vehicles on your insurance policy. Importantly for Motorcyclists, any UM coverage on your car mayl cover you for an accident on your bike.

At Ward & Caggiano, P.A. we can deal with the bias that sometimes faces those injured in a motorcycle accident. With more and more adults enjoying the freedom of bikes, no one should be denied when careless drivers fail to yield or otherwise endanger bikers. Contact us online or call 407-244-1212 or Toll Free at 800-381-8299 for your Free Consultation now.