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Noob - Personal liability?


tellch00

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I'm sure this has been discussed before but I haven't come across it. After doing some DE off and on over the past few years I decided to make a bigger committment to it this past fall. I went ahead and hired a pro driver as an instructor and started to work with him.

 

I even sold my beloved 997TT and bought a proper dedicated track car (996 Koni car). My wife just asked about personal liability and I really didn't have a good answer. I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist with most groups - I think PCA offers some protection.

 

I am NOT talking about insuring the car against damages - I know you can do that. I'm sure i'm not the only one that has assests and a lot to lose if God forbid, someone were injured.

 

What do most people do? I can't believe folks would just leave themselves exposed to litigation. I know waivers are signed but how much would they really hold up?

 

I need to come up with some answers or this hobby might be over before it gets started.

 

PS i'm not talking about racing, just DE

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While NASA and most organizations carry some liability protection for drivers against uninvolved third parties such as spectators, I don't know of any sanctioning body who covers incidents between drivers or between participants in the event. If PCA provides this, I was unaware of that coverage and I would be interested to learn how it works. The waiver provides good protection in most states but often will not stop an aggressive plaintiff's attorney from filing a suit hoping to force a settlement or inflict other pain. For a complete understanding of how well waivers work where you are driving, you can always spend an hour of attorney time to have someone who regularly litigates personal injury suits give you an update on current case law in that jurisdiction.

 

So, at the end of the day your best bet is to obtain a personal liability umbrella policy that specifically covers this sort of activity. Most carriers have umbrella liability available so you can inquire with whoever carries your homeowners or other such coverage to see if it is workable for you. It stinks that we have to worry about these things, but such is the society we live in. You can direct any further questions to me at my e-mail listed on the main NASA site.

 

-JWL

 

John Lindsey

Chief Divisional Director

NASA

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I tried to get a basic life insurance policy through my brother's company last year. He knew of my race hobby, but pressed on anyway. Once the "higher-ups" got wind of the policy request, they recognized the name and pretty much told me to go pound sand.

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I tried to get a basic life insurance policy through my brother's company last year. He knew of my race hobby, but pressed on anyway. Once the "higher-ups" got wind of the policy request, they recognized the name and pretty much told me to go pound sand.
You need to keep shopping; PM me and I'll tell you where I have mine but they were worried about sky-diving not amatuer road racing.
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  • 6 months later...

I realize I'm late to this party.

One of the NASA CI's suggested I reply to a more recent life insurance question on the NASA forum, and I stumbled onto this thread as well. I'm a NASA instructor and the resident life insurance expert for racers and hpde drivers over on Rennlist.

 

You can get life insurance coverage with full disclosure of Club Race and DE activities, and without paying any additional premium. The trick is to go to one of the companies with experience underwriting track guys, and having an agent who can properly describe our hobby, dissuading them from thinking we're all the next Dale Earnhardt. I have lots of NASA (and PCA, SCCA, FCA, etc) clients with insurance that covers them on track, without any additional premium because of our fun, fast hobby.

 

Happy to answer any and all life and health insurance questions, especially regarding coverage at the track.

 

Marc

[email protected]

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  • 7 years later...
On 2/3/2012 at 5:30 AM, sperkins said:

I tried to get a basic life insurance policy through my brother's company last year. He knew of my race hobby, but pressed on anyway. Once the "higher-ups" got wind of the policy request, they recognized the name and pretty much told me to go pound sand.  

"Pound sand"???  LOL  Were you a sailor?  first heard that back in the late 60's on the sub!  and I did hear almost that from my homeowners ins company.

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