Car insurance: What is bodily injury liability coverage?

You’re feeling great. You’re jamming out to your favorite song, on your way home from work. It’s been a long day, but you’re looking forward to unwinding at home. But then you accidentally run a stop sign. You plow into someone else’s car. Fortunately, no one is severely hurt, but the other driver does need to go to the hospital – they need stitches and x-rays and stuff. This is where a coverage within your car insurance plan, bodily injury liability insurance, can help.

What is bodily injury liability insurance?

Bodily injury liability insurance can help you cover your obligation to the other driver if you’re in an accident. It can help cover their medical expenses, pain and suffering, and even their lost wages if they’re unable to work. (Plus it can help save your bacon by covering your legal expenses if you get sued.)

No one ever plans for an accident to happen, but it can and does. And when they do, everything can change in a heartbeat. That’s why your bodily injury liability is so important.

Am I required to have bodily injury liability insurance?

Mostly every state requires drivers to carry bodily injury liability insurance in order to hit the road. You have to be able to cover your obligation to someone else if you injure them in a car accident. So, while a part of us rebels at being told what to do – why should I have to carry this insurance at this level? – it’s for everyone’s good, really. Your good and the good of other drivers on the road. You’re sharing the road, after all. Traffic happens. Bad weather happens. Accidents happen.

Okay, just a quick thing about state minimums – usually this is not a very high level of liability insurance. You might want to give some serious thought to getting higher levels of insurance than are strictly required by your state. Just a tip about car insurance.

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