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Auto Accidents

• Muskingum County Ohio Car Accident Attorney | 15-Year-Old Girl Injured in Muskingum Ohio Accident
• Pike County Ohio Auto Accident Lawyer | 55-Year-Old Woman Sustained Injuries in Sunfish Ohio Car Accident
• Portage County Ohio Car Accident Attorney | Motor Vehicle Crash Injures 17-Year-Old Girl in Randolph Ohio
• Warren County Ohio Personal Injury Attorney | Turtle Creek Ohio SUV Crash Injures 57-Year-Old Woman

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News

• Posted on 9/9/2010Cleveland School Bus Driver Arrested After Drunk Driving Crash
• Posted on 9/3/2010Ohio drivers are among the safest in the United States
• Posted on 7/18/2010Man killed in Lorain County motorcycle crash
• Posted on 7/7/2010Lorain man killed in DUI scooter crash

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Library

Auto Accidents

• Aggravation of a Pre-Existing Condition in an Ohio Personal Injury Case

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FAQs

Auto Accidents

• I was injured in an Akron car crash while I was driving a relatives car. Whose insurance policy covers my injuries and the damage to the car?
• I was injured in a Cleveland car crash. When should I contact an attorney?
• I was injured in a Cleveland car crash. When should I contact an attorney?

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Car and Bus Accident in Liberty Township Illustrates the Importance of Having Enough Auto Uninsured Motorist Insurance

A car in Liberty Township hit a bus on May 21, 2010, causing two people in the car to go the hospital. Luckily, nobody in the bus was hurt. Many students on the bus from Lakota East High School were shaken up. Even though no injuries were reported at the scene, it is very common that sprain-strain injuries show up days or weeks after an accident. The reason for this is that the adrenaline is pumping at the accident scene, and it takes a while for this to wear off. Also, swelling takes a while to set in. Many times after such an impact, the person wakes up the next morning stiff and sore: the beginning signs of a sprain-strain injury.

Even though nobody on the bus was injured, we can use this accident to illustrate the importance of carrying uninsured motorist coverage to protect yourself when the party at fault may not have enough auto insurance to cover all injuries of everyone they hurt. Whenever you have so many people potentially injured, the issue many times becomes: did the driver of the car buy enough auto insurance coverage to pay for all of the medical bills, pain and suffering, etc. of each person on the bus. This holds true whether or not it is a school bus or public transportation. When you buy automobile liability insurance, you normally buy it in terms of per person / per accident limits. For example, if you purchased 12,500 / 25,000 coverage, this means your auto insurance company will pay $12,500 for each person you hurt’s injuries up to a total of $25,000. If you hit a car with many people in it, or in this example a bus, $25,000 is hardly enough to compensate many people. The medical bills alone can exceed $25,000. This is why having high liability limits is important.

Back to our example. Let’s assume that a Canton City School bus is hit by a car and the car driver is at fault. If many Canton people are injured, then each will be filing a claim against the person at fault, the driver of the car. If the auto policies of the owner and driver of the car at fault is not enough to cover all the injured Canton bus passengers, then each passenger must look for more auto insurance to get their bills paid and receive pain and suffering.

Each bus passenger will have to look to see if the bus they are on has uninsured motorist coverage, also called “UM coverage,” that will pay for their medical bills and pain and suffering since the driver of the car will most likely not have enough for everyone. Underinsured motorist coverage is similar to uninsured motorist coverage, as it protects a person if they are hit by a person who is underinsured, ie not enough auto insurance to cover all injuries caused. It is important to carry both types of insurance.

However, there is no guarantee that the City of Canton, or for that matter any major city like Youngstown, Toledo, Columbus, Dayton or Cincinnati, carries uninsured motorist coverage on their buses. Many schools and cities do not carry uninsured motorist coverage to protect their passengers from the negligence of a third party. They only carry liability coverage to protect themselves from the negligence of their bus driver employees, as they are liable for the negligence of their employees on the job as a general rule.

In the example above, each passenger will have to look at their own auto policies to see if they have purchased uninsured motorist coverage. They may also be able to use the uninsured motorist policy of any family member they lived with at the time of the accident. This is called resident family uninsured motorist coverage.

You buy uninsured motorist coverage in increments, just like you do liability insurance. I often tell my clients don’t assume you have it just because you are told you have “full coverage.” Also, make sure you carry a large uninsured motorist policy, because it has to fully compensate you no matter how big your injuries are that are caused by the other party. I suggest carrying at least a $100,000 /$300,000 uninsured motorist policy.

As you can see, finding enough auto insurance can mean the difference between getting all of your medical bills paid and receiving money for pain and suffering and having to file bankruptcy or pay the bills yourself.

Of course, if each passenger has health insurance, this will make life easier as it can be billed. However, many doctors will not bill health insurance for car accidents and will not take Medicaid or Medicare. You can see how important it is to figure out early whether or not there is enough auto insurance to fully compensate the passenger. Being innocent is not enough to be compensated. There must be someone to pay the bills. This is what any competent Ohio car accident lawyer does. He or she makes sure that every possible auto insurance policy is found and used to make sure the client is fully compensated for all of their injuries.

We can all be thankful that none of those Lakota East High School children were hurt on Friday, May 21. However, the next busload of children may not be so lucky, and it is up to their families to make sure they are protected by checking on the amount of their uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. You don’t want an uninsured driver to cripple a family member only to find out you receive only a lousy $12,500 uninsured payment because your insurance agent saved you a few dollars a month and sold you the bare minimum UM policy. It happens more than you might care to know.


If you have been hurt in a Liberty Township bus accident, call the Butler County car accident lawyers at Chester Law Group at 1-800-218-4243 or order your FREE BOOK entitled “The Insider’s Guide to Handling Ohio Accident Claims” at www.chesterlaw.com.

Chester Law Group Co., LPA are located in Akron, Youngstown, Canton, Toledo, Columbus, Westlake, Amherst, Beachwood, Mentor, Twinsburg, Ravenna, Warren, Medina, and Independence, Ohio.

Our offices serve clients statewide in Ohio including the following areas:

Akron / Canton, Cleveland Metropolitan Area, Youngstown / Warren, Elyria / Lorain, Toledo, Columbus, Cincinnati, and rural Ohio.

Contact us today for a FREE, NO OBLIGATION consultation about your personal injury legal needs.

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