Understanding Everything About the Liability Portion of Your Kentucky Auto Insurance

When you go through the list of things you absolutely, positively can’t live without in your list of monthly bills your Kentucky auto insurance premiums should be up toward the top of the list (with electricity coming in a very close second, especially with winter right around the corner-I have it on excellent authority that it’s already snowing up north!). The point is, you never want to hit the Kentucky highways without knowing that your auto insurance is up to par-and to do that, you need to make sure you understand your liability insurance.

Kentucky Minimum Liability Requirements

Bodily Injury Liability: $25,000/$50,000

Property Damage Liability: $10,000

We’ve all seen the signs telling us about Kentucky’s minimum auto insurance liability requirements. You’ve probably already worked it out with your auto insurance agent to make sure your own coverage levels are well within the legal limits. The question is, what does any of that mean? What are you really paying for? And how do you know you’re getting your money’s worth?

What is Liability?

Before we get too deep into what bodily injury and property damage liability are, let’s talk about liability itself. When you’re responsible for an accident, whether it’s that you were following just a little too closely or you didn’t pay quite enough attention when you made a right on red, they consider you to be responsible for any costs that might pop up associated with that accident. That means that you’re going to have to pay to fix the car(s) of the other driver(s) and for them to get the short term and long term medical care they need. Not to mention fixing any light posts, guard rails and/or store windows that happen to get in the way.

That’s why you need liability insurance on your Kentucky auto insurance policy.

Bodily Injury Liability

Have you seen how much they’re charging for emergency room visits these days? Not to mention a stay in the ICU, which can start at $5,000 a day. Let’s say you weren’t looking and accidentally ran a stop sign, plowing into the side of an oncoming car. The driver and two passengers were seriously injured. Each required a five day stay in the ICU. That’s $75,000 in intensive care! Add on to that $1,000 a day for a regular hospital stay, plus a couple hundred for the ER, $200-300 in pharmaceuticals and days, weeks or even months of follow up care and it’s easy to see how being in an accident can break the bank faster than you can say, “Check please!”

Bodily injury liability through your Kentucky auto insurance will pick up the cost of care up to a certain point (your maximum coverage) minus your deductible. That means if you opt for minimum liability your insurance will pay the first $50,000 worth of medical bills, then you’re responsible for the rest.

There’s a reason most experts suggest you carry at least $300,000 in bodily

Car accidents are expensive. How much is your liability really going to cover?

injury, and it’s not so you can pad the pockets of Kentucky’s auto insurance companies!

Property Damage Liability

If you’re very, very lucky you’ll walk away from an accident without a scratch on either your car or the other driver’s….but let’s face it, how often does that actually happen? The property damage liability portion of your Kentucky auto insurance policy takes care of patching up the other vehicles involved, as well as anything else unlucky enough to get in the way (guard rails, for example). And since you never know if you’re going to be in a fender bender with a $5,000 clunker or a head-on collision with a $60,000 Lamborghini, it’s recommended you carry at least $100,000 in property damage liability.

You don’t have to, but it’s a good idea.

What Liability Insurance Doesn’t Cover

You’d be amazed to discover how many people genuinely don’t understand what their liability insurance does (and does not) cover. Actually, the list is pretty short. If it belongs to you, your liability insurance isn’t going to pay for it. Unless you and your spouse are in an accident-but that’s a whole different story!

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