Uninsured Motorist Coverage

As some of you who frequent Triscoop are well aware, but many of you aren't, our triathlon buddy Gusano from Diboll, TX was in a horrible bike accident last August. The good news is that Gusano is well on his way to recovery, and hopes to get back out there on the race course this March at the Lonestar Sprint Triathlon down in Galveston, TX.

I'd read about his accident and later heard him interviewed on Tyler Darby's (aka Jetpack) podcast just days after the accident, but only learned recently that the person who hit Gusano wasn't insured. No problem right? It turns out, unbeknownst to Gusano, that he didn't have uninsured motorist protection which left him exposed to all of the medical bills his health insurance wouldn't cover.

I had Gusano send me a note giving me the details to post to my blog. My hopes are that everyone who gets out there on the roads to run or bike or into the lake to open water swim* will double check their auto insurance policies to be sure they have this coverage, and to add it if they don't. Here is Gusano's story:

On August 18, 2007 at 7:00pm after about 56 miles of riding, my sister and I were passing through a neighborhood to lead us back home. I was going down a hill when a suburban turned left onto a side street in front of me. I do not remember anything from about 15 minutes before the wreck to about 2 hours after the wreck. I am told that I smashed into the side of the suburban busting out the back seat passenger side window. My sister said when she rode up on me that I was lying down, holding my shoulder and saying it was hurting pretty bad. My arm was bleeding pretty badly so she took her cycling shirt and wrapped it around the open wounds. She said I kept asking what happened and where we were. The ambulance arrived and strapped me down onto a spine board and that’s when I mentioned that my neck hurt. We went to the local hospital and after many x-rays a CAT scan, and MRI they came in and said my neck was broken in three places and that they were sending me to Houston for surgery. This was the first I remember. I remember dying of thirst, but they couldn’t give me any water and the spine board was very uncomfortable. I laid in the ER in Houston on a Saturday night until around 6am Sunday morning. Hours later I had more x-rays and another MRI. This all showed that my neck was stable and I would not need surgery. The three broken vertebra turned into one and somehow two of the vertebra were already fused together. They had also slipped forward tearing all the ligaments and stuff holding them together. Without surgery I would wear a hard neck brace for about 12 weeks. They preformed surgery on my shoulder and removed tons of broken glass from beneath my skin. It would be weeks later until another doctor looked at my shoulder and determined that it had been fractured and separated. I was released from the hospital on Wednesday. I had many checkups on my neck and lots of physical therapy for my shoulder. It has been about 5 months since the accident and I feel about 90% healed. My scars remind me everyday and I feel grateful and very lucky.

During all this time I have talked to 3 different lawyers about this case. Turns out the guy that hit me did not have insurance on his vehicle but showed proof of insurance at the wreck. His excuse was that he was in the process of selling the vehicle. The officer did not ticket the guy for failure to yield and made excuses that I was hard to see. The man that hit me still says today that it was not his fault and I came out of nowhere. Luckily, I had medical insurance that pays 80%. But still when medical bills add up to about $100k and you’re still receiving them in the mail it can get expensive for you. So the guy doesn’t have insurance and no lawyer will want to take the case since they are not guaranteed any money. I could pay the lawyer up front for all the fees but in the end I would just be out more money. You can’t get anything from someone who has nothing. We looked into my car insurance for help. Turns out I don’t have Uninsured Motorist Coverage. This coverage would have paid for all my medical expenses and any other injury-related loss. We added it the day we found out. I have never known about this coverage and for a few bucks more it’s worth every penny. I did have PIP or Personal Injury Protection which was $2,500. Hey it covered my ambulance ride!!

Again, take a look at your coverage and make sure you all are in good shape.

Thanks for sharing the story with us Gus! Looking forward to reading your race report from Galveston!

*I had a masters swim teammate get chopped up by the prop of a drunk boater in Atlanta while doing a group swim