Decent Newark car insurance will protect you from hitting one of these.

With winter here it’s time to refresh your memory of Newark snow laws and making sure your Newark car insurance is snow ready.

Snow is a four letter word for many of us because of all the trouble that it brings when it comes around each year. The biggest concern with snow is that it makes driving more difficult because of the lack of traction that we need to control our vehicles and it creates additional obstacles in the road that we have to try to get through or get around. Both of these snow caused difficulties ends up leading to more car accidents this time of year.

And when there is a good snow in Newark, laws that lay quietly dormant for the rest of the year are activated; making things even harder for drivers while the city tries to clean up the white stuff.

Snow Laws in Newark

The lion’s share of the snow laws in Newark have to do with parking. Whenever it snows and sticks on the road, drivers are prohibited from parking on a large number of streets until the streets can be plowed. The list of these streets is much too long to share here, but the City of Newark’s website has the list available if you were curious.

If a snow emergency is declared, then one side or the other of the streets cannot be parked on every other day:

” Upon the declaration of a snow emergency, there shall be no parking upon streets or portions of streets where posted snow emergency signs are displayed on the days and sides of streets indicated. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, on the south and east side and Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays on the north and west sides on any of the streets listed: (Ord. 6 S+FG, 12-18-96 § 1)”

If you park where you shouldn’t be parked when it snows, don’t expect your vehicle to still be there when you come back.

Have Enough Newark Car Insurance?

In addition to the lack of parking in Newark causing problems when the snow falls, a greater concern for drivers should be the increase in car accidents. New Jersey only requires that its drivers have PIP and property damage liability coverage to drive, but if you are in a car accident during the winter this is not enough.

First, if you cause an accident and the other person’s medical bills exceed their own PIP coverage you have to pay for it. And if you just have the required Newark car insurance you will have to pay these expenses out of your own pocket, because there is nothing on your policy that pays for another person’s medical expenses.

Also, you will have no insurance coverage to pay for the damages to your own vehicle if you only have the required Newark car insurance. This means that whatever small amount of money you saved by purchasing just the required car insurance will most likely be lost after you have had just one car accident.

So before the snow leads you into an accident this winter, talk to your Newark car insurance agent about the minimum coverage that will fully protect you and not cost you and arm and a leg.

Reasons 3 and 4 of why the required Toledo car insurance is not enough.

Contact your Toledo car insurance agent to bridge the gap between required insurance coverage and adequate insurance coverage.

In part one of this article, we talked about the first two reasons why the minimum Toledo car insurance required by Ohio may not be enough to protect you financially in the event of a car accident. Here in part two, we will talk about two other reasons why you need to be talking to your Toledo car insurance agent.

Reason #3: Property Damage Costs

Before the State of Ohio raised the property damage liability coverage to $25,000, the current amount of $7,500 was a joke. How many cars do you know can be fixed or replaced for $7,500 or less?

The $25,000 is better protection for you because just about any car can be fixed for $25,000 or less. The only thing you would need to be concerned about is if you hit a high-priced car and it ends up being declared a total loss. Any vehicle that is declared a total loss and has a value of more than $25,000 means that you will have to make up the difference of the value and the amount of coverage you have from your own pocket.

It doesn’t cost that much to increase your property damage liability coverage to $50,000 or even $100,000 to give you that extra protection. And the cost of the insurance coverage is a lot cheaper than having to make up the difference between your required $25,000 in coverage and the actual value of an expensive vehicle.

Reason #4: No Coverage for You

Like most states, the required car insurance coverage is only to protect those that you hit with your vehicle. The bodily injury liability coverage is for the injuries in the other vehicle, and the property damage liability is for damages you cause with your vehicle to property you don’t own.

In other words, if you go with just the required Toledo car insurance so that you can drive legally you are out of luck if you get in an accident. There is no coverage for your own injuries, so you will have to pay those on your own or with your health insurance. And you will have to pay for any damages to your own vehicle that needs to be fixed.

Even if the car accident isn’t your fault, you will still end up having to pay for your medical expenses and vehicle damages out of your own pocket if the other person doesn’t have insurance or if they fight who was at fault for the accident.

So do yourself a favor and sit down with your Toledo car insurance agent to discuss exactly what coverages you actually need, beyond the state required ones, to be protected in the event of any car accident.

The required Toledo car insurance is fine, but here are 2 of the 4 reasons why it’s not enough.

Don’t be in the dark about the coverages for your Toledo car insurance.

To be able to drive in Ohio, you have to have the following minimum Toledo car insurance:

• $12,500 of bodily injury coverage to pay for the injuries you cause to one person
• $25,000 of bodily injury coverage to pay for all of the medical expenses for two or more injured people in a car accident that you cause
• $7,500 for property damage that you cause with your vehicle

And as of December 23, 2013 these required Toledo car insurance coverages will increase to:

• $25,000 of bodily injury coverage to pay for the injuries you cause to one person
• $50,000 of bodily injury coverage to pay for all of the medical expenses for two or more injured people in a car accident that you cause
• $25,000 for property damage that you cause with your vehicle

While the increase in these required coverages is a good start it is not nearly enough to protect you if you are in a car accident. In part one of this two part article, we will go over 2 of the 4 reasons why you need to talk to your Toledo car insurance agent about carrying more coverage than what is required by the State of Ohio to drive.

Reason #1: The High Cost of Medical Expenses and Lawsuits

While the required $25,000 in bodily injury liability coverage is good enough to cover minor or medium injuries that you cause, it is nowhere near enough for anything more than that. Yes, major injuries or even fatalities from car accidents are not as common as less serious injuries. However fatalities and serious injuries still do happen.

What if you are the one that caused one of these few fatalities or serious injuries? That $25,000 is nowhere near enough to cover an extended hospital stay, physical therapy, and medication. And if you kill someone, you have all the costs associated with the care and burial of a deceased body.

Reason #2: Lawsuits

Once an injured claimant has reached a point that they finish their medical treatment, a pain and suffering settlement is usually offered. If this settlement is accepted then the insurance company pays the claimant and the claim is closed. If the insurance company and the claimant can’t agree on a settlement then it goes to court.

If a person dies because of a car accident that you cause, you can almost be sure to be taken to court by family members for a wrongful death lawsuit.

In both cases the the court and attorney expenses are usually covered by your insurance policy. However, if you only have the $25,000 in bodily injury liability coverage it will most likely already be maxed out by the time you even get to court. Which means you will have to pay any settlement, court fees, and attorney fees that the court approves in their judgment out of your own pocket.

(Continued in Part Two…….)

Basic St. Paul Car Insurance isn’t enough to come out the winner in the winter driving battle.

The snow is beautiful until it causes you to have to use your St. Paul car insurance.

All of us have the potential to be safe drivers; some of us just chose not to be. But, when winter weather hits the St. Paul area it increases everyone’s chance of getting in a car accident whether they are normally cautious drivers or not.

Winter brings with it the snow, ice, slippery roads and lower visibility that sometimes just make it impossible to avoid an accident. And if you have opted to only purchase the minimum amount of insurance as required by Minnesota, you don’t have enough insurance coverage to make it out of the winter without putting your finances at risk.

First, What is Basic St. Paul Car Insurance?

The State of Minnesota creates what the minimum insurance requirements are for the entire based on what they feel best protects the drivers there. The current minimums for Minnesota include:

• Personal Injury Protection ($40,000 minimum coverage)
• Bodily Injury Liability Coverage ($30,000 minimum coverage per person injured/ $60,000 limit per accident minimum coverage)
• Property Damage Liability Coverage ($10,000 minimum coverage)
• Uninsured Motorist ($25,000 minimum coverage per person injured/ $50,000 limit per accident minimum coverage)
• Underinsured Motorist ($25,000 minimum coverage per person injured/ $50,000 limit per accident minimum coverage)

Second, Why do You Need More St. Paul Car Insurance?

If you take a close look at the coverages required for St. Paul car insurance, you will notice that they are all coverages that protect the other person you hit or only pay for your medical expenses if you are injured. There are no required coverages to pay for any damages that your own vehicle may have.

So if you are driving around with just the minimum required St. Paul car insurance and you get into a car accident that is your fault, any damages to your vehicle will have to be paid for out of your own pocket.

And considering that there are 3 ½ times more weather related car accidents involving a single car compared to multiple cars, if you do get in to an accident in the winter due to the weather there most likely won’t be another person to blame anyway. (Minnesota Department of Public Safety – 2011 Crash Facts).

Third, Ask Your Agent about Other St. Paul Car Insurance

Contact you insurance agent to go over your policy to make sure you have enough coverage on your vehicle for winter driving. Your agent can advise you as to what would be the best coverages to have this time of year, as well as adjusting the coverage amounts on your policy so that it fits your budget.

Don’t wait too long to contact them about the coverages on your St. Paul car insurance policy though, because every time you drive during the winter you increase your chance that you will be in a car accident.

You can argue that you don’t need Cincinnati car insurance, but you can’t argue with car accident statistics.

With 83 car accidents a day in this county, Cincinnati car insurance is much needed protection.

People talk until they are blue in the face that they don’t need car insurance. Their reasons vary from being a safe driver, never having an accident before, not driving enough to increase the chance of getting into a car accident, and thinking that having to carry car insurance is a government conspiracy.

Whether these reasons are true or not, I am not going to speculate on. But what I can share are the car accident statistics from the Ohio Department of Public Safety, from there you can make your own decision as to whether you still need car insurance or not.

Actually, you don’t have a choice whether to have car insurance or not; but you can decide whether you feel safer having to have it.

Car Accident Statistics for All of Ohio

In 2012, there were a total of 287,050 car accidents in Ohio. This averages out to 786 car accidents a day in the state.

Of these 287, 050 car accidents, at least one person died in 1,024 of them. There were also a total of 72,100 accidents that resulting in one or more people being injured; which means that 25% of all car accidents that happened in 2012 had injuries. Of these injuries, there were a total of 105,149 people injured, creating an average of 288 people a day being injured in car accidents in Ohio.

The scary thing about these statistics is that 58% of the car accidents that happened in Ohio in 2012 were during clear weather conditions. Only 42% of car accidents happened where there was some sort of outside weather influence that could have created conditions for a car accident to happen.

Car Accident Statistic for Just Hamilton County

Hamilton County (the county where Cincinnati is located) was the location of 10.5% of all the car accidents in Ohio for 2012. This county alone averaged 83 car accidents a day.

Their car accident statistics also include:

• 55 fatal car accidents that resulted in 57 deaths
• 6,020 car accidents that had one or more injuries
• An average of 23 people a day being injured in car accidents

Cincinnati Car Insurance Requirements

Just as a reminder, even if you don’t want Cincinnati car insurance coverage you still have to have the following to be able to drive:

• $12,500 of bodily injury coverage to pay for the injuries you cause to one person
• $25,000 of bodily injury coverage to pay for all of the medical expenses for two or more injured people in a car accident that you cause
• $7,500 for property damage that you cause with your vehicle

And as of December 23, 2013 these required Cincinnati car insurance coverages will increase to:

• $25,000 of bodily injury coverage to pay for the injuries you cause to one person
• $50,000 of bodily injury coverage to pay for all of the medical expenses for two or more injured people in a car accident that you cause
• $25,000 for property damage that you cause with your vehicle

Even with the increase in coverage, these minimum Cincinnati car insurance requirements aren’t enough protection. These coverages only cover the damages and injuries you cause to another party; they do not cover your injuries or damages.

To make sure you have enough protection for yourself, contact your local agent and talk about the coverages that you currently have for your Cincinnati car insurance.