4 Common Mistakes to Avoid After a Motorcycle Accident

Although the dangers of riding are obvious even to those who have never hopped on a hog, some of the most seasoned motorcyclists are unaware of the steps they should take in the event of a collision. Since catastrophic injuries are likely in motorcycle accidents, all riders should know what to do in the aftermath of a crash. Otherwise, they risk jeopardizing their chances of recovering compensation from those liable for their damages.

If you ride, it is also wise to familiarize yourself with some of the most common mistakes people make following wrecks. When your financial security is at stake, knowing what not to do is just as important as knowing how to proceed. Here are a few critical missteps to avoid after a collision:

Admitting Fault

Never apologize, accept responsibility, or admit fault at the scene. Although Minnesota motorists must file claims under their own no-fault insurance coverage, liability can play a role in certain scenarios.

For example, if a driver or passenger sustains an injury resulting in disfigurement, disability for at least 60 days, or the permanent limitation of an organ, system, or function, he or she can bypass the no-fault system and sue the at-fault driver for damages. There are different guidelines for motorcyclists, though, so it is wise to seek legal counsel following a wreck.

Despite the state’s no-fault system, riders do not have to purchase such coverage in Minnesota. Therefore, unless you bought an optional policy, suing the liable driver may be your only option for pursuing compensation. Naturally, this will be more difficult if you admit fault at the scene.

Postponing Medical Care

Failing to visit a doctor right away will threaten both your health and your subsequent personal injury claim. Postponing treatment increases the chances of suffering serious complications. It also provides the defendant with the opportunity to argue you are at least partially liable for the severity of your injuries because you put off visiting a doctor. 

Talking to the Insurance Adjuster

Insurance adjusters are skilled negotiators who enter every interaction with an agenda. It is in your best interests to avoid talking to them at all. Let your personal injury lawyer handle all interactions with the insurance adjuster so you do not feel pressured to provide a recorded statement. 

Failing to Document Everything

Building a strong motorcycle accident claim begins at the scene. That means photographing the wreck from all angles and obtaining the names and contact information of any eyewitnesses.

Upon leaving the area, it’s up to you to document the damages. Photograph visible wounds from day one, and write about your injuries and emotional trauma in a daily journal. Additionally, save all records, receipts, and invoices for expenses you incur related to the accident.

Call 800-770-7008 to Speak with a Motorcycle Accident Attorney in Minneapolis

If you were hurt in a wreck while riding, turn to Bradshaw & Bryant. Our motorcycle accident lawyers will help you gather the evidence needed to prove liability and damages. Call 320-259-5414 or fill out our Contact Form to schedule a free case evaluation with a personal injury attorney in Minneapolis.

---

Mike Bryant

A founding partner with Bradshaw & Bryant, Mike Bryant has always fought to find justice for his clients—knowing that legal troubles, both personal injury and criminal, can be devastating for a family. Voted a Top 40 Personal Injury "Super Lawyer"  multiple years, Mr. Bryant has also been voted one of the Top 100 Minnesota  "Super Lawyers" four times.

How to Prove Negligence After a Car Accident

Although Minnesota follows a no-fault system when it comes to car insurance claims, there are scenarios in which injured parties may seek compensation from the at-fault motorist. But before they can recover a single dollar from the opposing party, they must be able to prove negligence played a role in the incident.

Since there are countless ways for drivers to be negligent while behind the wheel, there are also countless kinds of evidence to prove it; however, there are certain types of proof that are valuable in virtually all car accident claims. These include:

Official Police Reports: Responding officers are going to question everyone at the scene. If the other motorist admits fault or accepts blame, police are going to note as much in the official accident report. Under Minnesota’s implied consent law, police also have the right to administer chemical tests if they believe anyone involved was driving while impaired. Whether they conduct blood, breath, or urine tests will be noted in the report, as well, and the results of these tests can also be used as evidence of negligence.
Photographs of the Wreckage: The arrangement of the vehicles at the scene can reveal what happened in the seconds leading up to the crash. If one car crossed over the centerline and struck another vehicle head on, for example, photographs of the wreckage will indicate as much.
Eyewitness Testimony: Passengers, nearby motorists, cyclists, and/or pedestrians might have seen what happened in the moments before the collision. Although eyewitness testimony is not the most reliable kind of evidence, it can corroborate your version of events and provide additional insight regarding the cause of the wreck.
Statements from Accident Reconstruction Experts: When a crash involves multiple vehicles or liability is unclear, claimants can turn to accident reconstruction experts for help. These professionals can deduce what happened based on the available evidence.
Gathering the evidence mentioned above may sound like a lot of work, but doing so is not necessary following every car accident because of Minnesota’s no-fault laws. Injured parties only need to prove negligence if they pursue a claim against the at-fault driver, which they may do if the collision results in:

Permanent injury;
Permanent scarring or disfigurement;
At least 60 days of disability;
At least $4,000 in reasonable medical expenses, excluding diagnostic procedures like X-rays and MRI scans; or
Death.
Discuss Your Case with a Car Accident Lawyer in St. Cloud, Minnesota

If you were hurt in a motor-vehicle collision with a drunk, distracted, or reckless driver, a personal injury attorney from Bradshaw & Bryant will help you gather the kinds of evidence mentioned above to prove negligence. For six consecutive years, attorney Michael Bryant has been recognized as a SuperLawyer and has been named among the state’s Top 40 Personal Injury Lawyers by Minnesota Law & Politics. Call 320-259-5414 or fill out our Contact Form to schedule a free case evaluation with a car accident attorney in St. Cloud.

---

Mike Bryant
A founding partner with Bradshaw & Bryant, Mike Bryant has always fought to find justice for his clients—knowing that legal troubles, both personal injury and criminal, can be devastating for a family. Voted a Top 40 Personal Injury "Super Lawyer"  multiple years, Mr. Bryant has also been voted one of the Top 100 Minnesota  "Super Lawyers" four times.

Insurance Dashboard

DEFINITION of Insurance Dashboard

An interactive digital tool that combines and manages all aspects of a user’s insurance policies in one platform. An insurance dashboard provides much needed transparency within the insurance sector, and is used by both insurers and the insured to track and monitor activities related to an insurance account.

BREAKING DOWN Insurance Dashboard

Technology in the insurance sector (Insurtech) has surged following customer demand for more transparency and lower premium rates. Before the proliferation of technology in the insurance sector, significant time had to be invested by brokers and individuals in getting quotes from insurance companies. Traditional insurance shopping for best rates requires calling as many insurers to cross-reference the types of coverage each offers with their subsequent rates. With an insurance dashboard, a shopper avoids this lengthy process since the required information is readily available on the digital board. Dashboards provide immediate transparency, interactivity, and convenience—important traits that are much needed for financial inclusiveness.


Dashboards are used by online brokers to display rates quoted by different insurance companies for certain types of coverage. Insurance dashboards provide a one-stop comparison shop for consumers who can easily access information about insurance products quickly. Providing immediate quotes where clients can conveniently decide on the right coverage for their needs is one of the benefits of the insurance dashboard.

Users who are already covered by a policy can access their personalized dashboard online through a cell phone, tablet, or laptop by logging onto the insurer’s site. An customer with multiple coverage under the same insurance firm, say for car, home, health, and travel, will see information pertaining to all policies on the same dashboard. From the dashboard, the insured can file for and monitor the progress of an insurance claim without the step of making multiple calls to the claims department. Some insurance dashboards have an upload feature for claimants who would like to attach pictures or documents to their claims file. Information included on the dashboard include annual premium, status of claims if any, effective policy date, and other basic information like name and address of the policy holder.

Insurance companies use dashboards to gather the necessary data on its users. Data analytics involves using insurance data to determine the relationship between earnings through premiums collected and losses that arise from claims filed. Information that is retrieved by insurance analytics provides insurers with insight on the demographics of their policy owners that are more expensive to insure. For example, an insurer that reported losses in the previous year can analyze its dashboard metrics for the purpose of improving its operations. If it sorts through its available data and the numbers reveal that policy owners that are male between the age of 25 and 30 have the most claims on file, the company might decide to increase the premium paid by this group to cover for costs incurred. Dashboards used within insurance firms include information such as name and policy ID of policy holders, age, gender, claims history, claim type, risk assessment, loss ratio, and type of coverage provided.

Information on a dashboard can be filtered and sorted to make corporate decisions, converted to graphs and charts for visual communication, and shared with third party companies like banks. 

Through advancements in insurtech and fintech, dashboards have provided a means where brokers, insurers, insurance shoppers, and policy owners can readily access insurance information with little to no out-of-pocket costs.

How Car Insurance Companies Value Cars

When your vehicle is totaled in an auto accident, your insurance company pays you for the car's value – or, more accurately, it pays you for what it claims the value to be. You can put this money toward the amount you still owe on the totaled car, or you can use it to purchase a new vehicle. Nearly everyone who has been through this process can attest that the most frustrating part is accepting the auto insurance company's assessment of your car's value. Almost invariably, the estimate comes in much lower than you anticipated, and the amount you receive is not enough to purchase an apples-to-apples replacement. For many drivers, it is not even enough to cover what they still owe on the car.

Confounding the issue is the fact most car insurance customers are clueless as to the methodology used by insurance companies to value cars. The valuation methods of car insurers are esoteric, relying on abstract data, the specifics of which they are careful not to reveal. This information asymmetry makes it difficult for a consumer to challenge a low-ball offer from a car insurance company. However, simply knowing the basics of how insurance companies value cars and the terminology they use can bring you to a more auspicious place from which to negotiate.

The Car Insurance Valuation Process

When you report a car accident to your insurance company, the company sends an adjuster to assess the damage. The adjuster's first order of business is determining whether to classify the vehicle as totaled. An insurance company may consider the car to be totaled even if it can be fixed. Generally speaking, the company totals a car if the cost to repair it exceeds a certain percentage, usually 60 to 70%, of its value.


Assuming the vehicle is totaled, the adjuster then conducts an appraisal and assigns a value to the vehicle. The damage from the accident is not considered in the appraisal. What the adjuster seeks to estimate is what a reasonable cash offer for the vehicle would have been immediately before the accident took place.

Next, the insurance company enlists a third-party appraiser to issue its own estimate on the vehicle. This is done to minimize any appearance of impropriety or underhandedness and to subject the vehicle to a different valuation methodology. The company considers its own appraisal and that of the third party when making its offer to you.

Actual Cash Value Versus Replacement Cost

A huge distinction exists between the value of your car as determined by the insurance company and the amount it actually costs to purchase a suitable replacement. The insurance company bases its offer on the actual cash value (ACV). This is the amount that the company determines someone would reasonably pay for the car, assuming the accident did not happen. Therefore, the value takes into consideration depreciation, wear and tear, mechanical problems, cosmetic blemishes, and supply and demand in your local area.

Even if you purchased a car new and only drove it a year before the accident, its ACV will be significantly lower than what you paid for it. Simply driving a new car off the lot depreciates it as much as 20%, and the insurance company dings you further for everything from the miles on the odometer to the soda stains on the upholstery accumulated during that year.

The amount of the ACV offer is also going to be less than the replacement cost – the amount it costs you to purchase a new vehicle similar to the one you wrecked. Unless you are willing to supplement the insurance payment with your own funds, your next car is going to be a step down from your old one.

A solution to this problem is purchasing car insurance that pays replacement cost. This type of policy uses the same methodology to total a vehicle, but after that, it pays you the current market rate for a new car in the same class as your wrecked car. The monthly premiums for replacement cost insurance can be significantly higher than for traditional car insurance.

Other Challenges

Not being able to afford a comparable car with the money from your insurance company after an accident is exceedingly frustrating. That being said, there is another potential situation that can compound the stress of an auto accident even further.

Often, the amount an insurance company offers for a totaled car is not even sufficient to cover what is owed on the wrecked car. This may occur if you wreck a new car shortly after buying it. The vehicle has taken its big initial depreciation hit, but you have barely had time to pay down your loan balance. This can also occur if you have taken advantage of a special financing offer that minimized or eliminated your down payment. While these programs certainly keep you from having to part with a large chunk of cash to buy a car, they almost guarantee that you drive off the lot with negative equity. This becomes a problem if you total the car before restoring a positive equity position.

When your insurance check cannot pay off your car loan in full, the amount that remains is known as a deficiency balance. Because this is considered unsecured debt – the collateral that formerly secured it is now destroyed – the lender is especially aggressive about collecting it.

Like the replacement cost issue, this problem has a solution. Add gap insurance to your car insurance policy to ensure that you never have to deal with a remaining balance on a totaled car. This coverage pays for the cash value of your car as determined by the insurance company and pays for any deficiency balance left over after you apply the proceeds to your loan. Gap coverage, like replacement cost coverage, adds to your insurance premium. You should consider, however, that if you fall into one of the above scenarios, it could make a deficiency balance more likely in the case of an accident.

How telematics is transforming the car insurance landscape

The following is an opinion piece written by Mohsen Mohseninia, VP of Market Development, Aeris. The views expressed within the article are not necessarily reflective of those of Insurance Business.

Innovative advances in the motor insurance industry have led to the evolution and deployment of new products and services using IoT telematics, such as usage-based insurance (UBI). Globally, Allied Market Research predicts that the UBI market is expect to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 36.4% from 2016 to 2022.

The latest iteration of UBI (also known as black box or pay-as-you-drive insurance) uses granular data insights to align driving behaviours with determining insurance premiums. UBI has become more popular with drivers in the last few years and, in the UK alone, more than 750,000 UBI policies have been issued. 

Not only is UBI a popular choice among drivers to help reduce premiums, but it has also been adopted by insurers as a way to analyse driver risk. The increased access to in-depth telematics enables insurance providers to assess driver behaviour, evaluate risk, and develop customised UBI policies based on various data insights.

With this huge market opportunity, telematics companies must have a scalable and reliable solution to cater to the demand.

In order to provide accurate, data-driven driver insights that helps inform insurance providers, it is essential that telematics companies can track and collect data in real-time, regardless of location, carrier, or connectivity protocol. The current challenge for telematics companies is implementing a SIM that is capable of dealing with the high quantity of data. Companies need a SIM, with the ability to switch network providers on-the-fly, in order to maintain always-on connectivity to ensure that data would not be lost.

If device connectivity drops due to provider issues, then the device does not collect all of the data needed. Insurers are left with incomplete information and they cannot identify high-risk drivers accurately, which, ultimately, puts them in a position to lose money in pay-outs. Additionally, access to timely and robust data increases both claims efficiency and consumer satisfaction with their insurer’s management of the claims process. Therefore, reliable, always-on connectivity is a must at all times.

Constant connectivity is key to development

Telematics service provider, Redtail Telematics, currently works with Aeris, the carrier-agnostic IoT solutions provider, to collect precise, high-quality data about the driver to enable insurance partners to offer vehicle insurance based on real, rather than perceived risk.

Aeris’s global support of major cellular technology standards, such as GSM, CDMA, and LTE, means Redtail can avoid a network outage, and therefore data gaps. This helps Redtail enable customer flexibility, opening new connectivity avenues, along with the potential for growth across the globe.

The level of connectivity provided by Aeris means Redtail can provide accurate insights that help inform insurers of driver risk. The data can be used retrospectively to determine premium costs via behaviour across a six-month period, or to intervene, helping to identify where a driver could pose a risk and coach them towards better driving habits, ultimately improving road safety.

Using a SIM that provides constant connectivity, Redtail can also provide clear and concise information to both consumers and dealers at the right time. For example, it now has the ability to post alerts on OEM apps when there is a red flag around a vehicle’s battery life, stopping dangerous issues from arising by catching the problem and resolving it before it escalates.

With one of the main pressures on telematics companies coming down to cost, Redtail needed to stand out from its competitors and offer dynamic pricing that would suit the insurance industry. Aeris’s technical and contractual flexibility ensures Redtail is not charged for devices when they are not in use meaning they can offer more range in terms of price, ultimately providing them with the ability to offer differentiated solutions that match individual customer needs.

Because of this, Redtail has been able to tap into new markets, as it has the flexibility to offer affordable solutions while guaranteeing quality and accurate data insights even in poor infrastructure areas.

Additionally, Redtail can now work with local authorities and highway agencies to improve roads. Due to the granularity of the data, Redtail can inform authorities on everything from potholes that are causing driving issues to the reasons behind why people are having accidents on particular motorways. The data provided by Redtail will be fundamental to the development of the UK’s transport infrastructure.

While UBI is currently being utilised to provide more accurate data on drivers to help ensure insurers are offering the right policies, the capabilities of telematics in the industry are expanding. With access to constant connectivity and never before accessed insights, telematics companies have the opportunity to create an ecosystem that works for the driver, the insurer and the government - a way to provide a full picture on all journeys.

About Redtail Telematics LTD:

Redtail Telematics Ltd is headquartered in Cambridge, UK and, together with subsidiary Redtail Telematics Corp in San Diego, California, is unique among telematics service providers (TSPs) in designing and manufacturing its own devices―known as on-board units (OBUs)―as opposed to purchasing them from a technology provider.  Redtail’s rigorous approach to quality sustains throughout their full-service offering combining APIs, portals, raw or managed data and b2b/b2c apps.

Redtail is a leading provider of telematics solutions to the usage-based insurance (UBI), automotive, fleet tracking, and stolen vehicle recovery (SVR) sectors globally. The company draws on its joint heritage with sister company, Plextek, the communications technology design house, which has supplied more than six million devices into the automotive aftermarket in more than 30 countries since 1993.

About Aeris:

Aeris is a technology partner with a proven history of helping companies unlock value through IoT. For more than a decade, we’ve powered critical projects for some of the most demanding customers of IoT services today. We strive to fundamentally improve their businesses by dramatically reducing costs, accelerating time-to-market, and enabling new revenue streams. Built from the ground up for IoT and road tested at scale, Aeris IoT Services are based on the broadest technology stack in the industry, spanning connectivity up to vertical solutions. As veterans of the industry, we know that implementing an IoT solution can be complex, and we pride ourselves on making it simpler.

Car insurance WARNING - Avoid THIS policy type as it could land YOU a huge fine and ban

DRIVERS are being warned about a scam car insurance policy which could land you in a huge fine and a driving ban. Here’s what it is and how it can affect you.

Motorists across the UK are being warned about a potential car insurance scam they could unknowingly become a victim of.

New data has found that record numbers of young motorists are being coerced into buying fake car insurance premiums online.

Drivers are being targeted on social media websites by dodgy car insurance salespeople who are flogging fake policies for cheap.

Ghost broking puts the motorist at risk from driving around without valid car insurance.

It could also land motorists a fine and leave them without cover in the case of an accident.

Adverts can appear on social media offering car insurance for as little as £100 a year on student websites, money-saving forums and social networks such as Instagram and Facebook.

Criminals adopt a range of tactics to extort cash out of the unsuspecting motorist looking to make a saving.

They can falsify the details on the insurance premium to drive the cost down, making it worthless or they could take out a genuine policy before immediately cancelling it and claiming the refund.

The Insurance Fraud Bureau head of intelligence Stephen Dalton said: “Young drivers, with higher premiums, are often the target.

“More than a third of young people we surveyed said they’ve seen a suspicious ad for insurance on social media.”

Drivers are being advised to exercise some caution if the deal looks ‘too good to be true.’

Detective chief inspector Andy Fyfe, head of the City of London Police insurance fraud enforcement department, says: “Ghost brokers trick unsuspecting victims with offers of heavily discounted car insurance, leaving them with a policy that isn’t worth the paper it’s written on and open to the severe harm that comes with driving without valid insurance.

“Being able to drive is vital for a lot people, whether it be to get to work or pick up their children from school or nursery, so if they fall victim to a ghost broker it could not only impact on them financially but also seriously affect their day to day life and make things very difficult.

“As well as the personal harm experienced by victims, ghost brokers also cause financial harm to the insurance industry, driving up the cost of insurance premiums for all motorists.”