Moving vehicle accidents can strip you of physical, mental and financial health

Motor vehicle accidents: Who’s affected? 

Have you been physically or mentally shattered by a motor vehicle accident? You may be able to obtain meaningful compensation.

Laws and insurance coverage of motor vehicle accidents vary by state, complicating the already complex matter of recovering from an accident physically, mentally and financially. Full compensation is not guaranteed and seldom achieved. A fair result must frequently be sought through a lawsuit. 

The National Safety Council (NSC) reports that 5.4 million people were seen by medical personnel for injuries caused by motor vehicle accidents in 2021. That is higher than the population of nearly 30 states.

The Governors Highway Safety Administration estimates that 42,795 people died in traffic crashes in the U.S. in 2022. That’s 117 a day.

If you were among the injured or the family of someone who died in a motor vehicle accident, you might need help navigating the complicated legal and insurance web to receive the compensation to which you may be entitled.

A matter of money

Total motor-vehicle injury costs in 2021 were estimated at $498.3 billion, according to the NSC. This included wage and productivity losses, medical expenses, administrative expenses, motor-vehicle property damage and employer costs.

Virtually all of that is cycled through insurance, which is in itself a complicated matter made even more complicated depending on what kind of vehicles were involved in a crash and where the accident occurred. No matter how much you pay for that insurance, it may not compensate you for all your losses, eating into your savings and assets. The ugly truth is, a bad accident can ruin you physically and mentally, and financially if you are not fully protected by insurance and receiving helpful guidance.

Car insurance, a major expenditure for most households, is mandatory for all motorists in all but two states: New Hampshire and Virginia. In these states courts take the lead in determining who is at fault, and laws are designed to encourage drivers to buy insurance or risk being being liable for millions of dollars.

Some 38 states and Washington, D.C., work on a tort system, also known as fault-based, wherein the driver who causes the accident pays the bill. In states that work along no-fault guidelines, drivers are required to purchase personal injury protection (PIP) to cover their own medical bills after an accident, no matter who is at fault.

No-fault states are:

• Florida
• Hawaii
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• New Jersey
• New York
• North Dakota
• Pennsylvania
• Utah

Pennsylvania and New Jersey are “choice” states, which means drivers must have either no-fault insurance, or tort insurance that can be “full” or “limited.”

“Generally speaking, full tort insurance allows you to sue the at-fault driver for pain and suffering as well as medical costs. Limited tort, by contrast, restricts your ability to sue for pain and suffering and may limit other claims as well,” according to U.S. News & World Report.

Commercial drivers have multiple protections through their employers, and the amount of coverage can be higher than that for personal vehicles.

In the past injuries and property damage involving other kinds of vehicles were part of the coverage purchased for cars and homes; now they are mostly covered by separate policies, among them:

• Motorcycles
• Motor homes
• Golf carts
• Dune buggies
• All-terrain vehicles
• Snowmobiles
• Campers/trailers
• Collectible cars

Terms

The vocabulary used in insurance policies is the same across the board. In moving vehicle accidents you will likely be exposed to such concepts as:

Liability coverage: Pays if you cause injuries to others and damage to other vehicles and can also cover lawsuits.

Collision coverage: Covers your vehicle if it collides with another vehicle or object.

Personal injury protection (PIP); medical payments: Both cover medical bills accrued by you and your passengers.

Uninsured motorist coverage: Picks up costs if you are in an accident with an uncovered motorist.

It doesn’t cover everything

By the time you figure out who covers what, you may discover that no one’s insurance will cover everything. Policies include a deductible that must be paid out of pocket before coverage begins, pay only a percentage of the cost, and set a limit to how much will be paid. These terms are rarely, if ever, overturned. It is not in an insurance company’s interest to pay more than it absolutely must.

Already at a disadvantage, you may find that bad accidents result in hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in costs, requiring you to go to court. Combined with actual costs, you may also be penalized for breaking the law.