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I often consult with clients that have been in a single car accident and want to utilize the insurance coverage they have paid on for years because they have “full coverage”. Well, liability insurance is just that, it goes in effect when you are at fault for causing someone or something injury and/or damages. Not when you cause yourself injury or damages. People would be running their cars into trees on purpose to get insurance coverage if that were the case.

Accidents happen and those in the “driver’s seat”, literally and figuratively, have a duty to the passengers in the car.  Passengers traveling in the car during a single car accident often times have claims against the insurance company of the driver.  “Fault”, or liability, is a legal term here used to proceed against the insurance company of the driver. Sometimes that driver is your friend, family member, and/or loved one.  However, their insurance premium is going to go up regardless of what you do because they are going to have a “claim” for property damage or simply for the accident.  Thus, you are causing no more trouble and are actually using resources that your friend, family member, and/or loved one has provided for people like yourself. Medical Payments/Personal Injury Protection is additional coverage everyone should have because it benefits every occupant in a car that has been injured, regardless of who is at fault.

Unfortunately there were more than a few single car accidents in Upstate South Carolina this past week as reported by The Greenville News and Anderson Independent:

• Shannon Lee Long, a 26-year-old Easleyman, was killed around 3:30 a.m., August 8, 2009, on State 93. Mr. Long was driving in an easterly direction from Easley toward Liberty in Pickens County when the SUV he was driving left the road, struck an embankment and overturned;
• Danny Coker of Honea Pathdied around 11:45 a.m. Monday, August 10, 2009, along Latimer Mill Road near U.S. 25, when his 2005 Dodge went off the road in a curve and struck a tree;
• Gerald Nix,63, of Liberty lost control of his Kawasaki motorcycle about 12:20 p.m., August 8, 2009,  on Gillespie Road in Anderson County and crashed into a tree. Mr. Nix was transported by helicopter to Greenville Memorial Hospital; and
• Scarlet Brickhouse (driver) and Kevin McKeithan, both of Richmond, Va., were traveling in a 2004 Ford Explorer on I-85on Sunday, August 9, 2009, near mile marker 6 while towing a trailer with motorcycles in it that slid from side-to-side which caused Ms. Brickhouse to lose control. The Ford Explorer flipped over on its roof and landed 30 feet to 40 feet below the interstate in a creek.

Be careful out there on the roadways. Regardless of whether you are the driver or a passenger.