The invention of the automobile in the late nineteenth century created a need to protect driver (motorist) from the potentially enormous financial loss from operating a car. With the knowledge that operating an automobile is potentially economically devastating, and acting on the assumption that driving an automobile is a privilege and not a right, policy makers required motorists to purchase auto insurance coverage to protect innocent third parties as well as the at-fault motorist from liability.
Auto insurance (also known as vehicle insurance, car insurance, or motor insurance) is insurance purchased for cars, trucks, and other vehicles. Its primary use is to provide protection against losses incurred as a result of traffic accidents and against liability that could be incurred in an accident. The basic types of auto insurance coverage include:
- Bodily Injury Liability. Pays your legal defense costs and claims against you if your car injures or kills someone. Covers family members living with you and others driving with your permission.
- Property Damage Liability. Pays your legal defense costs and claims against you if your car damages another’s property. Does not cover your property, including your auto.
- Medical Payments or Personal Injury Protection. Pays medical expenses resulting from an accident for you and others riding in your car. Also pays for you or your family members injured while riding in another’s car or while walking.
- Collision. Pays for repairs of damage to your car caused by a collision with another vehicle or any other object, regardless of who was responsible.
- Comprehensive Physical Damage. Pays for damages to your car resulting from theft, fire, hail, vandalism, or a variety of other causes.
- Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist. Pays for costs related to injuries or property damage to you or your family members and guests in your car caused by an uninsured, underinsured, or hit-and-run driver.
If you interested to take insurance for your automobile, you may choose our recommended auto insurance, their coverage are affordable to pay and they will protects an insured’s investment in the value of owned autos, they also pays medical expenses when injuries occur, and covers an insured’s legal liability as a result of automobile accidents.
Dr. Harris Meyer is a San Francisco Chiropractor who treats many motor vehicle accident injuries in his clinic. He strongly recommends to all his patients that they carry somewhat higher than recommended policy limits, as well as coverage for uninsured motorists, med-pay, and car rental.
In our clinic we have all too often seen patients who thought they were sufficiently covered by their car insurance but that didn’t turn out to be the case.
Another strong recommendation is to see a chiropractor as soon as possible after an injury that doesn’t require hospitalization. If there is injury without pain, and you ignore it, you are begging for problems down the road. Our clinic sees many many people come for pain and problems they have as much as 2-3 or more years after a car accident. It is much easier to correct a problem when it’s new and hasn’t caused permanent damage than it is to deal with miserable symptoms caused by spinal changes (akin to premature aging) that can’t be reversed.
Bottom line: make sure you are insured appropriately, be a safe driver, and seek immediate chiropractic evaluation following any injuries.