If you were ever involved in an accident while travelling, the cost to you and anyone travelling with you would be astronomical. There would be medical fees for you and your passengers, loss of salary if you had to stay off work and maybe physiotherapy bills.
To help with this, you can take out a Personal Injury Protection policy or PIP to help with the costs of an accident to you and your passengers. But what is PIP and what can it do for you in the event of a crash?
How does it work?
The difference between standard car insurance and PIP is that car insurance only covers the driver responsible for the accident. PIP, however, has a no-fault aspect that means it will pay regardless of who was at fault. If you were the cause of the accident, PIP might still pay for your medical bills and loss of salary.
With PIP, you also get a much quicker settlement than with other insurances so you can get access to medical help as soon as possible.
Some states require you to have PIP, so it’s a good idea to check what the requirement is within your area.
Coverage
Depending on your coverage, PIP can pay for as much as 80% of your medical bills. This can include treatment of your injuries and those travelling in the vehicle with you.
In some cases, PIP can cover you as a passenger in another car, or even as a pedestrian involved in an accident.
The policy can pay for rehabilitation costs and if the unfortunate happens, funeral costs. This makes it a good insurance to have if you do a lot of travelling by car.
How does PIP differ from other policies?
There is another policy called medical payments coverage. This works in much the same way as PIP. However, there are a few important differences.
Medical payments coverage will pay for medical treatment for you and your passengers just like PIP. It won’t however, pay for any loss of salary, funeral costs or other expenses incurred by the accident. For this reason, many people choose to go with PIP as opposed to medical payments coverage.
What if something goes wrong?
Sometimes, you may find that your insurance company doesn’t deal with your claim as you would want them to. This can be very frustrating and costly to you and your family.
If you are having difficulties, then there are things you can do to try and resolve the situation. You can approach a personal injury lawyer such as josephdooleylaw.com who can assess the claim and give you advice.
In most cases, this can resolve the issues, however, if this doesn’t work your lawyer can take things further.
If you are not currently covered by PIP insurance, then it can be something that you need to think about. The ability to help those travelling with you in a vehicle could be very important, especially if they are seriously hurt and will be off work for some time.
