When I was younger, I had big dreams of leaving Australia for Italy and living ‘la dolce vita.’ I mean, I knew that I would have to work once I got there, but getting there was really all that I could think about at the time. In fact, when I was searching for my first job out of college, I focused on finding a company with a presence in Italy. I viewed this as my gateway to the Italian life that I always dreamed about.
I used my morning and evening commute as an opportunity to work on my language skills. I kept lessons on my iPod and listened to them on the drive. Instead of being responsible and getting a kit to hook the device up to my car stereo, I used the earbuds while driving. I was deep into a lesson on the Italian words for common foods when I rounded a corner a little too fast and came upon a line of stopped traffic. Before I knew it, I was slamming into the line of cars. I didn’t have time to stop, much less think aboutmy limited car insurance policy or my lack of extra liability insurance.
Later, when I woke up in the hospital, I knew that the accident must have been a bad one. I didn’t even remember how I got to the hospital. It wasn’t long before I learned about the other people I’d sent to the hospital as well. I knew I was responsible for their state and fully expected to be on the line for their medical expenses.
Not much time passed before I was hit with all of their medical bills. The amounts were shocking, but not as shocking as learning how little of it was covered by my auto insurance. My policy only included a $50,000 public liability insurance coverage amount, which left me paying out of pocket for the remainder of the bills. The worst thing about it was not that it could have been avoided if I had purchased extra liability coverage, but that I was going to have to give up my moving to Italy money.
You’d best believe that I have separate liability coverage now.