Robin Herman | 00:00

Most people don’t know that in New York, a bicyclist who’s hit by a car is entitled to no-fault benefits. Can you break that down for us?

 

Glenn Herman | 00:13

Absolutely. What are New York no-fault benefits and how would they apply to a cyclist in a crash? Under New York insurance law article 51, a cyclist involved in a collision with a vehicle, and now this includes a dooring incident, is entitled to no-fault benefits also known as personal injury protection. It doesn’t matter who the at fault person is. Even if the bicycle rider is 100% of fault, wasn’t watching where he was going, crashed into a side of a car. The rider is still entitled to these no-fault benefits. So as a cyclist, you’d make a claim against the insurance of the vehicle that you’re in the collision with. And you must make a claim to the insurance company within 30 days. There’s a couple of deadlines that are really important. No fault insurance, the 30-day requirement, very important. But what the no fault gives you, gives you up to $50,000 in coverage, and what do you get for that? Medical expenses, they’re covered 100%. You get 80% of your lost wages not to exceed $2,000 a month. Now, that’s not a lot of money because this law was passed in 1977, I believe, and hasn’t been updated since. You get other reasonable expenses up to $25 a day for transportation to and from the doctor. That’s essentially what the no fault benefits are. It doesn’t cover pain and suffering. Which in New York requires you to sustain what’s called a legally defined serious injury. So road rash, a couple of stitches. Unfortunately, you will not have a claim for personal injury or pain and suffering.

 

Robin Herman | 02:04

Okay, let’s try this scenario. There’s an accident between a bicyclist and a car. The car is hit and run, leaves the scene, and the rider doesn’t have the plates.

 

Glenn Herman | 02:15

And nobody’s, there’s no witnesses. They have no idea who that driver was, who that car is.

 

Robin Herman | 02:21

Exactly. What happens to the rider’s claim?

 

Glenn Herman | 02:25

Okay, so if you’re on a bike and you’re struck by a vehicle that leaves the scene, you weren’t able to get the plate. You’re not out of luck. I mean, it’s called a hit and run. There’s some important things that you must do. If the police are not called to the scene, or if they don’t show up, even if they are called to the scene, which happens a lot, or they show up and don’t make a report, you must make a report to the police within 24 hours of the crash. And if you don’t, you might just completely be cut from any type of Insurance benefits. 

 

Robin Herman | 03:07

The rider himself has to make the report.

 

Glenn Herman | 03:09

Or someone on behalf of the rider if the rider’s in the hospital and can’t do it. And there are a few exceptions such as that. If you’re totally incapacitated, the law says we’re going to give an exception because we don’t expect you from your hospital bed to go to the precinct. Right. Now, this is something that most people don’t know. The insurance companies never tell you. If you or a relative that you live with owns a car, that car insurance will provide no-fault coverage. Even though that car had nothing to do with the crash, and the insurance companies keep quiet about this because they don’t want people making claims. They just don’t want people to know that this coverage is available and it’s so important. Because you can receive money from pain and suffering from your own insurance company. So, If you’re in a crash and it’s a hit and run, and even when it’s not a hit and run, we always make a claim to that person’s insurance. Now, if you don’t have a car or the relative you live with doesn’t have a car, you don’t have a plate. You have no idea who this person was. You’re still not out of luck. You can make a claim to a state company called MVAIC. Now, MVAIC will pay your no-fault benefits, and if you sustained a serious injury, up to $25,000, but it’s a real real process. Claim needs to be filed, timely. If you don’t have that 24 hour police notice, they’re going to throw you out. So people should know, hit and run, make a report, call a lawyer because there’s things that they just won’t know.

 

Robin Herman | 04:59

Class 3 e-bike riders sometimes lose no-fault coverage. Why and what does a rider need to do?

 

Glenn Herman | 05:06

Why would a class 3 e-bike rider lose no-fault coverage? So the class 3 is a pedal assist bike that has a throttle. So you don’t need to pedal for the bike to go, and the bike can go up to 25 miles an hour. A lot of bikes can go faster than that, but that’s what we call a class 3 bike. 

Why would a class three rider lose no-fault coverage? To start, riding a class three bike doesn’t disqualify the rider hit by a vehicle from obtaining the no-fault coverage. They’re still entitled to it. Insurance companies, though, may try to argue that if the class 3 bike can go faster than 25 miles an hour, the ride is not entitled to no fall coverage because now it’s beyond the class 3. The bottom line is most people will need an attorney to fight this out for them. If they’re denied no-fault coverage from insurance companies, and we had the situation, and they look, they want to see a photo of the bike, they want a receipt for the bike, so they’ll do whatever they can to try to not pay. So very important that you speak to an attorney if you’re on any class of bike and you’re in a crash.

 

Robin Herman | 06:25

Okay, let’s say a rider owns no car, has no insurance, an is involved in a hit-and-run accident. Are they still covered after a driver hits them?

 

Glenn Herman | 06:36

If a rider doesn’t own a car and the relatives they live with don’t own a car, the only recourse is what we discussed earlier is to make a claim to the state company called MVAIC. They’ll pay your no-fault benefits. If you sustained a serious injury, you’re entitled to payment of pain and suffering, but it’s only up to $25,000, MVAIC will put you to your metal to prove how bad your injury is if you don’t have an easily a definable serious injury, which by the way, in New York, there’s 8 categories of serious injury. If you have a fracture of any part of your body, that qualifies, significant disfigurement, of course death, dismemberment, significant limitation of use of a body function or system. They have these defined categories. MVIAC, for all cases, you need to prove serious injury to be compensated for your pain and suffering.