world on the streets that we drive and so let's welcome my good friend darling darling welcome first time on healthy pets healthy people and her healthy owners i get those two confused healthy that's all the peoples the radio show and right well fifty but anyway that's my fault for naming them differently i'm excited to be here and i'm glad to have you heard thank arlene darlene is a agent an insurance agent yes she's a concierge insurance agent and i'm going to ask you to tell us a little bit about what that means but our topic today is what happens if and that was a delicate way to name what happens if you're in an accident on the roads whether the steps that you need to do what is pennsylvania state law as it applies to accidents or what if you got hit by a dog you know there are certain steps that you need to to to do and we're going to have that described to us by darlene so first of all darling welcome again and tell us thank you what you do as a concierge insurance agent as a personal concierge insurance agent it's really basically very simple all i do is advise my clients talk to them and tell them what the rightful action is many people don't know what they don't have until it's too late so you mean being under insured covered for a tree falling on your house and you're not correct or your neighbor's tree falls on your house so you think well they're your neighbors going to pay for that and they don't and you know i always say this on the radio show knowledge is power and you're able to empower yourself once you gain that knowledge it's true and you don't want to find out after the fact and everybody does everybody does and because the most precious thing we have other than our health and our family is our time and people don't want to take time to sit down with their insurance agent and review every coverage and it's important it's just everybody kind of worries about what the premium is right but that is there it's sort of like what i view health insurance  is that i don't want to have to see my health insurance until i need it absolutely but i want to make sure i have coverage once i do need it i have to say that i think the worst thing is to tell someone when they call you and say they've had this loss to tell them they're not covered that is a disservice to people people pay their insurance premium their whole life and when they need it to be told that they don't have it it's wrong so especially today because when the economy's down people tend to name appears on the title of the car that person must have a policy in their name so many people call and say they want to put their mother's car on their policy or they want to put their brother's car on their policy and many people don't even tell their agents they just call and say i want to add this car and if there is a claim they can deny it so it isn't that i'm a licensed driver that requires insurance it's the owner of the car correct so technically without insurance coverage you should be able to get a license plate and you should be able to get into a car or get inspected correct does that slip through the cracks sometimes it depends on what where you're having it inspected but yes it has i had one friend of mine who said that they gave their old on their old car their id card to the gentleman who was inspecting their car and he accepted it and it was three years older car so you can  that yes it can happen insurance is so important again you don't want to use it because you got a scratch on your car you want to use it one of the important things absolutely and that's why today everyone is going with higher deductibles because it's a catastrophic it's the big loss that you want to cover and you don't want there to be a problem so let's talk about specifics here regarding driving on the streets or not i know you see everybody on the phones and i'm guilty of that myself you know i'm a little more alert when i drive and on the phone i think actually that when i'm off the phone because i'm paying attention but you can get lost in a conversation and miss a turn or forget where you're going i see it our cell phones are a bigger problem causing accidents absolutely because everyone has them now years ago not too many people had cell phones and certainly they weren't using them in the car but now they are and it is the number one reason for most driving i have and i could be two thirty in the afternoon right so that's serious so if i'm on my cell phone and i cause an accident whether it's hitting somebody from behind or cutting somebody off and they hit in the me or my fa because i'm on the cell phone pennsylvania is a comparative negligence state and many people don't know what that means i don't basically what it means is that they are good if you are on your cellphone they can actually with all the technology today they can check and see that you were in fact on that cell phone and if it was your fault you will be deemed liable because in pennsylvania we know two facts one if you make a left hand turn you're automatically fall and two if you're backing out of a parking space you're going to be at war that is so difficult you go to the mall whether it's a big mall or strip mall are you trying to back out of your driveway it's almost like cars come out of nowhere i want to hit you it's it's amazing how people when you have the right of way there on that road or that path you know in the in the parking lot they just think that they own it and the poor person backing out is it's difficult so you want to make sure you have appropriate coverage there absolutely but i mean how do you avoid that i know my car has a backup camera and also has beepers to tell you when a car is coming in your path and i can't tell you how many times that in that and you just put your car reversing back up and and what's interesting is a lot of people don't have those cameras a lot of people don't have the the sound system so you're dealing with so many today more young drivers than ever so it's  so that's interesting so if you have an accident what are some of the steps that i need i'm required by law to take well versed regardless of the degree of the action and we're going to be a lot more specific as we go in our conversation right because the severe accidents of course a police officer called to a scene will not do a police report unless someone is treated by nambla it's taken to a hospital or treated there on site or car has to be towed they will do what is called an incident report now for both things a police report will be more specific they honor them in a court of law they have the name and address of the witnesses the most important thing for me and i've been doing this many many years is if you have an outside witness any witness or person in the cars that are involved in the accident they don't they can't help their statement but any outside witnesses is just important to get a name and a phone number and sometimes people are a little reluctant to get involved absolutely who are you but it's because serious accidents i mean i've known people who've lost their homes because they were under insured and it's so it's very important to have a witness and very important to always call the police so regardless of how minor the action that is you should call the police i think so because even though it's a little little just a little fender bender talking sweet he does a little fender bender nothing much most police say all just have them exchange information and leave the scene you know don't block up the intersection or the road but there is a two year statute of limitation where that person can say that they have injuries and six weeks down the road a person could wake up in the middle of the night with m paralyzed i mean anything can happen i think you're wise to document everything you can just taking pictures up on a wall have cell phones with all that type i think it's very valuable absolutely even recording and recording and always take a picture of the person's driver's license their id card because these things i can't tell you how many people or social coupling they're in a mishap no matter how small or how large they forget to even get the person's name and phone number and they leave the drone on kicks and when i did ask you presented actually change rule changes your whole thought process absolutely when you said that i thought of all the people who say no i'm fine well no you have to be treated on and so forth well i had a tack that attacked two of my dogs and i was being stung by a journalist problem so much these were yellowjackets ground you know grown ones that are vicious there was a swarm of them and one of my dogs had gotten into the swarm had dug educated the nest well and she was covered the other dog was covered and i was being stunned i had no clue that i even got stung wow you know i saw the reaction of the dogs i was worried about them two hours later my journal and crashed and i went into anaphylaxis certainly so that's what it that's how much adrenaline you know all i could think was not that i'm going to be stung by bees i'm worried about my dogs right you know and so you don't even think about your own safety correct and it doesn't take much to kick that adrenaline no it doesn't it truly does not so you could have you could be and have an injury not even be aware that you had an injury in it absolutely and that's why it's important to just follow a little protocol always call the police always get checked out isn't it better to be safe than sorry absolutely that's what i'm saying so we have these cameras that have the ability to do video yes well with sound is it legal for us to do that oh yes and especially when i've done it i have just said i'm just going to record this for our for our protection and that means the person that hit you because oftentimes each person thinks the other person hit them and what they don't know is the comparative negligence law in pennsylvania because if you go into someone else's lane of traffic regardless they could be speeding they could be going too slow perhaps but if you go into well you're not you're not if you're making a right hand turn you're probably not at fault it's the person making that left hand turn right hand turn and you're going to be fine even that i'm not the kind of somebody that if you're in that neighboring lane you know the passing lane then you're cutting him off then yes it's going to be your fault ok so our first step then no matter what the degree of the accident is is to exchange information right is not required by law or can somebody say i'm not giving you my information of then you call then they don't write so if i'm driving down the road and i'm involved in the next and i have whiplash or i have a laceration of some type head injury or whatever it is that's a whole nother scenario absolutely because you're talking about your medical your bodily functions opposed to just the damage to your car so that's an immediate call the police absolutely and when you call the police they usually bring an ambulance with them they will call the ambulance the me is there and there will be a detailed police report and that can be to your benefit absolutely geisha in the future absolutely because don't forget that two years is a long time that somebody can make up a story or decide that it happened a different way because everyone's minds are so powerful how many times did you think you saw somebody and you could've sworn they were wearing a red oh absolutely and it really was a purple when i was alone and it's amazing what stress and so forth yes does to your ability to remember it does it does so we have an ambulance coming and even though i feel like i'm ok sometimes or even embarrassed i think most people are yeah it's still better to go out in that ambulance and go to the hospital and be examined absolutely and if you don't want to get in the ambulance and go to the hospital that's fine go immediately have someone take you immediately you won't be able to drive but you will have someone take you right away because sometimes those injuries show up next hours later twenty four hours later for you know later yeah specially in terms of like whiplash and that type of absolutely nice absolutely and people mean well when they do that they just don't know that they end up in a jackpot situation and it's just better to do right for action do the right thing take care of it and if you did hit somebody and you are sorry certainly you want to do the right thing and you tell them i'm very sorry how many times people scream at other people no one has an accident on purpose that's why they call them so are you admitting guilt and therefore if you say i'm into them you can apologize if they cut you off and you hit them you're not going to apologize you're going to say geez i must have been in your blind spot because why else would they have cut you off to come into that lane y ou mentioned interest of the with with liability insurance and you used the term under insured yes and you had told me explain what that means under insured first of all under insured simply means that you don't have enough coverage and you don't have enough liability coverage to cover if someone sues you so you're told my story one time about someone who i guess happened years ago and it was grandmother took her her granddaughter story this grandmother took her granddaughter to a late lunch and it was at a local fast food place and there was nobody in the parking lot and they got in the car and buckled up and she looked no one was there backed out and a fourteen year old young man speeding ok fourteen year old not sixteen year old no he did not have a license or traveled ok and he was speeding and on some kind of medication or drinking we i don't know really but hit the grandmother and actually totaled the car and totaled his car yet while on her grant her car i mean it was a parking lot yes in a parking lot so he was going really he was speeding and the truth is the truth is she lost her home because she was on or she was under insured i guess her husband had passed away and they had low limits of liability and she never up them and so she lost well it's interesting scenario but that sounds to me like a fault with the law because you have somebody that is not legally driving it's driving impaired  accident and then the person that they hit loses everything else so i mean there are a lot of legislators here you can talk to a few of those were comparative negligence state and that is the problem and it's a comparative and negligence yeah we used to be a p i p a personal injury protection state and then we went to no fault back in the ninety's of what is no fault me no fault many people think it means that they have been accidents not their fault it's not the other person's fault it doesn't it only has pertains to medical coverage so it only pertains to medical coverage no fault that's it and that means that if we have an accident you hit me your policy is going to pay for your medical and my poli a certain amount whatever you have whatever your limits are and then i personally thought i've heard ten and that's in some people have more but then your personal insurance medical insurance will come into play come in play and if there's more to it than you then you have the opportunity to go after the person that you absolutely right ok now how does that apply to the damage to the vehicle well whoever said fault their company will pay to prepare replace that vehicle i had an interesting situation happened twenty one years ago i was stopped actually in front of this high school and somebody didn't stop or ended me oh and we were stopped in traffic for buses actually and  didn't damage my car until they pulled they want to kind of underneath my car oh and then when i backed out they pulled the bumper off all right so i sent the car to be repaired you know and she wasn't hurt i actually did have a little bit of whiplash repaired itself and others there was no litigation involved in the like that my medical expenses took care of all the needs that i had so when i got my car back they delivered my car to my house and said we have a five hundred dollars deductible and we need the five hundred dollars and i said i didn't i didn't cause an accident i got rear ended i'm a pain and struggle to get my insurance and i said well she had the same insurance company that i do and they decided they were going to they were going to have to determine determine fault i'm stopped at a red light you know i did in traffic almost at the car from if they hadn't pulled out because i got pushed right right i said you're going to take my five hundred dollars and i'm going to wait six months to get my five hundred dollars back not going to happen very frustrating  can something like that even happen that is a company decision because many companies will do the opposite when two people are insured with the same carrier neither of them will pay deductible so i don't know who you are insured with at the time but that was a company decision and that's why it's important to know the agent you're dealing with and the company you're dealing with so you as a concierge and i understand the term because i'm a concierge medical person myself  and i like that because you really provide i know i do provide undivided attention yes and i'm not on a time schedule and i'm not worried about the little bit of money being stressed companies can pay right and these people usually when you work with somebody who's operating on their concierge service when you're getting quality service that's what it's about absolutely and it's a lot of education to all yeah you know so that people will know what is right and what isn't what they can do and what they can't do and the truth is you can call me at seven o'clock at night or eight o'clock or on a weekend you know it's important to know that i have your best interests at heart as you do this well i know the insurance company that i talked about it at five o'clock in the office closes it goes to some central location and you have no contact with your agent right which is you know and i know there are many people say i'm going backwards but i think that your word has to mean something i think that it is important to go back to basics so you're able to look at different insurance companies and quote prices yes as opposed being stuck in the one correct one carrier carrier curve used because everybody has a different need so so door you mention earlier about tree falling on a house and whether a church or your neighbor's tree how do you resolve a situation like that with ensure it is your carrier that will take care of it so if your neighbor's tree falls on your house even though it's not your tree it is not your neighbor's responsibility  medical show to a great degree we do some variety shows here and we all but this stuff impacts our lives and kind of impact our health absolutely and that's why it's important i thought it was important for you to come on and kind of educated as well as of this many carriers will not insure a rottweiler or a pit bull they simply it doesn't matter if your dog is coming to her gentle they will not insure you if you have that breed of dog you want to deal with a company that they still can be from come frightened their instinct is to bite certainly you know and they're going to help them so what happens if my little tucker decides and your little finger well if he breaks skin you might suggest that i go ization and you're your policy will cover that no deductible and so you want to make sure that you don't have a bacterial infection so i'm sure there are any you know sutures or broken brown bone or so wh does that no hit against my insurance because a mobile dog nipped you well it is a claim on your policy but it will not cause your policy to go up ok no unlike a car xico wrecked and physical damage does  or whatever yes because even if i didn't have a banana peel on my living room floor and you tripped over my coffee table and you would sue me because i ruined your life you can't go in dancing with the stars now so have a chance  y and so the liability does protect the owner of the home so it is important to have this coverage what type of coverage do you generally recommend for the average person i really think that for medical most people have a thousand dollars for medical one that was great thirty years ago but today you really should have five thousand the medical and the minimum of three hundred thousand for liability i mean i prefer the million dollar coverage but that is just