Kentucky is blessed with some of the most imposing landscape of anywhere in the United States. It has the longest cave system in the United States, vast prairielands, elk and off course bourbon distilleries and the Kentucky Derby. It is a state that is one of the most pleasant to explore on two wheels, and if you are a keen motorcyclist then some time spent looking around the bigger cities of Louisville and Lexington is time well spent. But, before you can do any of that you need to take care to get some Kentucky Motorcycle Insurance that can take care of you in the event that something does go awry on your jouneys..
Motor accidents are more common than you might think, and if you tot up all of the miles that you cover on your motorcycle over a lifetime, then it is easy to see how it all adds up very quickly, and so the chances of being involved in some kind of incident rise dramatically if looked at over a longer time frame.
If you then add on the fact that motorcyclists are dramatically more likely to be involved in a motor accident then the driver of a car, then it is easy to see why securing quality Kentucky Motorcycle Insurance should be a priority for any rider.
(In fact it is such an issue that recently the Kentucky Department of Insurance has ‘Bike Safety Month’ to highlight the risks! So it is certainly worth doing all that you can to make a difference to your own safety.)
What are the state minimums for Kentucky Motorcycle Insurance?
Kentucky does lay down certain statutory minimum requirements that all motorcyclists have to satisfy in order to ride their motorcycles on the streets of Kentucky.
$25,000 – Bodily Injury Liability for One Person
$50,000 – Bodily Injury Liability for ALL People involved in an accident
$25,000 – Property Damage Liability
This is commonly referred to as 25/50/25 cover.
(Kentucky also has the option to just have one $60,000 limit. But this tends to be more complicated then splitting up the elements, and hence only Utah also offers this option. In practice the 20/50/25 cover would be the minimums.)
Are the state minimums for Kentucky Motorcycle Insurance high enough?
One issue that should concern you is whether or not the Kentucky Motorcycle Insurance minimums are actually adequate and whether or not you should look to get extra cover.
The answer is almost certainly yes for a number of different reasons.
Firstly, the levels of liability cover here are comparatively low when looked at side by side with more comprehensive policies. It is not uncommon for example to have bodily injury cover for one person that is $100,000 (the state minimum is 25k), and it actually makes a lot of sense as to why many people would opt for higher amounts of liability cover because the cost of medical treatments in the United States is so high, that in any serious accident where a hospital stay was prolonged you could very quickly end up going over the maximum amounts of the basic cover.
Secondly, there are a large percentage of drivers that either drive without any auto insurance, or else drive with very low amounts of cover. Various studies have estimated the figure at about 15% of all drivers, so at any one time about one in six drivers are driving without proper insurance cover.
What this means is that if you have an accident with such a driver and it was their fault, then there would be no insurance company to pay out for the costs of repairing the damage. But, if on the other hand you had had the forethought to get yourself a comprehensive, full coverage Kentucky Motorcycle Insurance policy that included underinsured cover and uninsured driver cover in the policy then you would be in a good position because your own insurance company would step in to pay the bill.
Thirdly, the basic policy wouldn’t cover you for theft, vandalism or fire damage to your bike. So, if you happen to live in a bigger city like Topeka or Olathe, then the odds of running into one of those three issues (especially theft and vandalism) goes up exponentially, so you really want to make sure that you have it covered.
The bottom line is that getting a policy that is right for you is well worth the effort because it can save you from a whole realm of pain that you might otherwise experience if you didn’t have adequate Insurance.
(You can also see whether the basic minumums for Kentucky Motorcycle Insurance have changed on the Kentucky Department of Insurance website).
Firstly, the levels of liability cover here are comparatively low when looked at side by side with more comprehensive policies. It is not uncommon for example to have bodily injury cover for one person that is $100,000 (the state minimum is 25k), and it actually makes a lot of sense as to why many people would opt for higher amounts of liability cover because the cost of medical treatments in the United States is so high, that in any serious accident where a hospital stay was prolonged you could very quickly end up going over the maximum amounts of the basic cover.
