What is personal accident cover in car insurance?

Personal accident cover provides financial protection if you suffer serious injuries following a car accident, or if you die. It will pay out to compensate you or your beneficiaries regardless of who is at fault for the accident.

It is designed to reduce the financial strain that can come from unexpected medical expenses, costs for rehab or lost earnings if you can’t work after the accident.

How does personal accident cover work?

Personal accident cover kicks in when you’re unable to claim on someone else’s insurance. Take the example of an accident where the other person is at fault. If you were injured and couldn’t work for a while, you could claim against them. This would be covered by the other person’s third-party insurance.

But what if the accident was your fault? If you can’t claim compensation from another party, you could then use personal accident cover. It provides financial support for injuries or fatalities that aren’t covered by other parts of your insurance.

How does it protect me?

When you claim on personal accident cover, you’ll get a fixed payout that can help cover:

• Medical costs that may not be covered by your health insurance
• Compensation for permanent disability
• Lost earnings if you’re injured in a car accident that was your fault
• Funeral costs in the event of death

It usually covers a range of serious injuries that can have long-term impacts on your life and financial situation, including:

• Total disablement
• Lost limbs
• Paralysis
• Permanent blindness
• Some insurance providers extend the coverage to other injuries, like loss of hearing, speech, burn damage and scarring.
• Personal accident cover also includes death

Do I need personal accident cover on my policy?

This kind of insurance isn’t a legal requirement to drive on the roads, like car insurance is. It’s usually added as an extra layer of protection that you can add to your existing car insurance. Although, some comprehensive car insurance policies do include it as standard, so it’s always worth checking to see if you already have it. You may already have it as part of a life insurance policy or health insurance too.

Personal accident cover exclusions

Personal accident cover doesn’t cover you for injuries that aren’t the direct result of an accident. It also doesn’t cover all injuries that may occur following an accident on the road, such as:

• Injuries sustained after not following safety procedures – this includes not wearing a seatbelt
• Minor injuries that don’t result in long-term disability
• Accidents that happen due to drink or drug driving
• Self-inflicted injuries
• Psychological trauma

What is personal accident cover?

Personal accident cover can help to provide you and your family financial stability if you suffer a serious injury from a car accident or pass away as a result of the crash. The financial assistance this cover gives you can help make adjustments to your everyday routine if you lose a limb or the use of certain body parts due to an accident. Different policies pay out for different types of accidents, so you’ll need to scout out the personal accident policy that give you the peace of mind you’re after when looking at optional extras for car insurance or a fully comprehensive insurance policy which includes personal accident cover.