You’re driving down the road on a beautiful sunny day, no cares in the world. Your favorite song is playing, you’re singing along. Life is good… When out of nowhere, boom! You get hit from the side, shakes you up a little bit by the time you recover and look around, the person that hits you is nowhere to be found.
You are the victim of a hit and run accident. Today I am going to tell you what you need to do and what coverage you need to protect yourself in the case that you are a victim of a hit and run accident. The last thing anybody wants is to be stuck with a damaged vehicle or even worse medical injuries and there’s no one responsible who’s going to pay for the damage to your vehicle or your medical injuries.
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Don’t Rely On Someone Else To Pay For Hit & Run
So what can you do to protect yourself and to make sure that you have that coverage?
First of all, it’s important to point out that there is no insurance policy out there that is going to protect you from a hit and run accident except your own policy. There’s not a state insurance policy, there is not a police insurance policy if someone hits you and takes off, there’s no one that’s going to pay except your own car insurance policy.
Let’s talk about the coverage that you need on your car insurance policy to protect you in the case that someone hits you and runs away.
Coverage You Need To Protect Your Vehicle
Let’s first talk about the coverage that you need on your car insurance policy to protect your vehicle: the coverage that you need to protect your vehicle is collision coverage. If you’re in a hit and run accident and you don’t have collision coverage on your vehicle.
You’re gonna be out of luck. Your insurance company is gonna tell you “sorry, but we’re not paying for that, we feel bad for you but you have no coverage. ” but if you do have that coverage, all you’re gonna have to do is pay your deductible, whether that’s $250 $100 or $1000 and your insurance company will step in and help you repair or replace your vehicle.
Waive My Deductible?
There are even some insurance companies that well wave your deductible and not make you pay it, if you were involved in a hit and run accident. Most of the time for that to happen, you need a police report, you can’t just go and say, hey I was in a hit and run accident, please fix my vehicle.
They used to do that historically, but people took advantage of that, they would back themselves, they would back their car into a light pole and then call the insurance company and say, hey this was a hit and run, can you wave my deductible? So there’s not as many companies that do it anymore.
However, just by having the collision coverage, the worst you’re gonna be out of is your deductible. So make sure you have that. If you want to protect your vehicle in the case of a hit and run.
Uninsured & Underinsured Property Damage
Now in some states, not in Arizona, but in some states you can buy uninsured and underinsured property damage coverage.
This will do the same thing that collision does most of the time. It’s not going to carry a deductible, if it is, it’s a very small deductible. There are different, different states have different laws and guidelines as to if they will pay out for a hit and run accident. And sometimes if you want them to pay out for a hit and run accident, you need to take certain steps.
So check with your broker if you’re in a state where they do offer uninsured underinsured property damage. If they do, that’s the coverage you want to protect your vehicle in the event that you’re involved in a hit and run or if someone just hits you causes damage to your vehicle and they don’t have any insurance or they don’t have enough insurance.
Medical Injuries In Hit & Run Accident
Now let’s talk about you and your medical injuries if you’re injured because somebody hit you and they took off, let’s talk about the coverage that you need on your own insurance policy to protect you when it comes to your medical injuries. The first coverage and we’ve made lots of videos about this is uninsured underinsured coverage.
What this does is this protects you, if somebody hits you and they don’t have any insurance or they don’t have enough insurance or they take off. In the event that happens and you have medical injuries, this coverage can kick in and help pay for any of your medical injuries and the second coverage that you can add onto your car insurance policy is med pay or medical coverage payments.
This coverage pays out to you in the event that you’re in any accident. It doesn’t matter if it’s a hit and run. It doesn’t matter if it was your fault. It doesn’t matter if it was somebody else’s fault and they stuck around and you were able to use their insurance. Doesn’t matter. This coverage, med pay coverage will kick in and help pay for any medical injuries that you sustain in the event that you are in a car accident or hit and run accident.
What If You’re A Perfect Driver?
Now a lot of times people will come and say, “hey, I only need liability because I’m a perfect driver. Nothing is ever gonna happen to me. I’m not gonna get in an accident. So why am I going to pay extra for these coverages? Well you may be the perfect driver, you may never get in an accident.
However, there’s lots of other crazy drivers out there that could hit you no matter how good of a driver you are and if you’re carrying only liability coverage, you are going to be out of luck when it comes to getting your vehicle fixed and getting your medical injuries fixed if you’re involved in a hit and run accident.
Analyze your policy, analyze your coverage, make sure that if a hit and run accident is something that concerns you, that you have the coverage we talked about. That way you can sleep at night and you don’t have to worry about not having the coverage you need in the case of a hit and run accident.