Parents of Teen Drivers- How to Protect Yourself in Case Your Teen Causes an Accident

By Tom Wiecek, President of the Society of Family Insurance Specialists

The worst just happened.

Well, almost the worst. You get a call from your child who just started driving without you. "Uh...hello mom. I was just in an accident."

Fortunately, your child was able to call you but you must ask "Are you okay?"

Then you wonder about the others that are possibly involved.

"Was anyone riding with you?"

"Was anyone hurt?"

"What about the other driver and anyone in their car?"

Your emotions go through the roof and you realize that this could be the worst phone call you could ever get. The good news is your child is okay. The bad news is that someone else is not. And it's a result of your child's negligence.

Let's pray you never get this call or a call from someone else that tells you your child's been in an accident.

So, what happens if you do get a call like this? What if there are some serious injuries or damage to property? Are you protected? To be more specific - Are you protected for a lawsuit? A lawsuit that could cost you everything you have worked so hard for?

It's hard for you or me to put a value on someone's life. But, if someone is paralyzed or even killed in a car accident, how can you repay that person's family or provide for their care if they survive?

Here's what will happen. You will pay. The courts will decide how much and over time, you will pay- Unless you're protected adequately by good insurance.

I hate to be so blunt, but this is serious and it's something you must consider- especially, now that you have an inexperienced driver in your household.

So, how can you make sure you are protected?

First, find an insurance agent that specializes in protecting families with teen drivers. A family insurance specialist understands the special needs required to protect you in case your teen causes an accident.

Second, ask this agent to conduct a 21 point review on your car and home insurance. Why should this be done on both policies? Because you will also need the most important policy every parent with a teen driver should have, an umbrella policy. This special policy provides additional liability coverage for the major event… a big lawsuit that can leave you devastated. Just as the name implies, this policy provides an “umbrella” of coverage over your other policies including your home.

Once you have had a 21 point protection review completed, you will likely discover that you are underinsured. Don’t be surprised. The majority of families with teen drivers are underinsured and usually never find out until something happens. That’s understandable since so many parents trust an agent that doesn’t specialize in protecting families with teen drivers. Now that you know you could be left exposed to a serious lawsuit, you have no excuse for getting the right protection. Here’s a true story of someone that knew they should be protected and didn’t take action…

A long time client called my office to add their 16 year old daughter to their car insurance. We recommended making some changes, most importantly, increasing their liability coverage. He had a limit of $100,000 per person and $300,000 per occurrence. This means that if he or someone in his household was found liable for an accident, the most an insurance company would pay is $100,000 per person for personal injury and $300,000 for everyone injured in the accident.

Well, he refused to accept our recommendations after a strong urging. We even had him sign off on this. Within the first year, his daughter lost control of her vehicle while driving down the highway with 2 friends in her small SUV. Her girlfriend in the back seat, who was not wearing her seatbelt, was thrown from the vehicle as it rolled 3 times across oncoming traffic.

Fortunately, she survived but spent over 3 weeks in the hospital with serious and permanent injuries. As you can guess, my client didn’t have enough coverage to pay for the lawsuit that followed. I’ll never forget the day he told me “Nothing will ever happen. My daughter is responsible and a good driver.” Now he is paying for this incident and will be for a very long time.

If he took my advice, increased his liability limits and purchased an umbrella, his financial future would have been protected.

To learn more about how you can best protect your family and find a local family insurance specialist, visit http://www.teendriverinsurance.com/ .

GPS Teen Monitoring System- It Can Save Your Child’s Life!

By Master Police Officer III James Poer

It amazes me when I see kids speeding around town as if they are bullet proof and invincible. All too often, this is why we lose kids in car accidents. Speeding is the number one cause for teen driver deaths and it's because they really don't know better.

Once they get behind the wheel, they think they can control their car at any speed and tend to push the limits. The problem happens when they get into a situation at a high speed and can't react quickly enough. Even professional car racers sometimes can't react quickly enough at high speeds.

When you add speed to any situation, you have what is called the "multiplier" effect. This means that the faster you approach an object, the less time you have to properly react, so the speed of your reaction needs to be multiplied.

So, how can you make sure your teen doesn't speed? Of course, it's up to you to make certain they don't and there is one tool that can almost guarantee your teen driver doesn’t make this dangerous mistake. GPS Teen Monitoring System- In my opinion, this is the best thing invented since sliced bread. This system works so well because the teen understands that if he or she speeds, you will know about it.

Here’s how it works.

A small gps unit is installed in your teen’s car, usually under the dash where it can’t be seen. The unit sends a signal to a satellite where it is monitored by the GPS provider. When you teen exceeds the preset speed limit, a signal is sent to you via text message, cell phone, or e-mail.
You can log into a special website where you can set the speed as well as monitor where your teen’s car is at any time. You can see how fast he or she is traveling and on what roads too.
Some systems offer other safety features like driving range alerts and driving time alerts. For more information, contact your http://www.teendriverinsurance.com/ agent for special deals on these units.

During my years investigating accidents, I have seen the effects of speeding and witnessed the deaths of too many teens. If more parents had these units installed in their children’s cars, I am certain more teens would avoid fatal car accidents.

Officer Poer is a 30 year veteran accident investigator. He is also a parent of 4 drivers. His experience, conviction, and advice are demonstrated on his website- http://www.parentalcourage.com/. Please visit his site often and remain vigilant about your teen driver’s safety!

Original article and more information on teen driver safety can be found at http://www.teendriverinsurance.com/