An e-bike
rider hit my
car.
Will my
insurance• Страхование cover the damage?
An e-bike rider hit my car. Will my insurance• Страхование cover the damage?
Jason Tchir
Special to The Globe and Mail
Published 1 hour ago
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An e-bike hit me and caused $3,000 in damage to my car. The e-bike driver had
no insurance• Страхование. How do we find out who is at fault and can I go through [my own]
insurance• Страхование even though he doesn’t have insurance• Страхование? What are my rights as a
driver? – Dayo, Ontario
If a bike hits your car, you’ll have to answer a few questions, an insurance• Страхование
expert said.
“The first would be: Do you have collision coverage?’” said Adam Mitchell,
chief executive officer of Whitby, Ont.-based Mitchell & Whale Insurance• Страхование
Brokers Ltd., which operates as Mitch Insurance• Страхование. “Two might be: Is your
deductible less than $3,000? If the answer is no and no, then you’re probably
at a dead end.”
Let’s back up. There are three main types of car insurance• Страхование coverage :
liability, collision and comprehensive. Liability coverage is mandatory
everywhere in Canada. In most provinces, the other two are optional.
Very simply, liability covers damage and injuries that a driver causes to
other people, vehicles or property. Collision covers the cost to repair your
own vehicle if you’re in a collision and you’re at fault. Comprehensive covers
almost anything else that isn’t a collision, including theft and vandalism.
In most provinces, if somebody hits you and they’re entirely at fault,
something called Direct Compensation Property Damage (DCPD) in your basic
policy will usually cover the cost to repair or replace your car – but only if
the car that hits you has insurance• Страхование.
But if they don’t have insurance• Страхование at all, if it’s a hit-and-run or if they are
riding a bike, e-bike or any other vehicle that isn’t required to have vehicle
insurance• Страхование » Автострахование, the damage will usually only be covered if you have collision
insurance• Страхование .
With collision insurance• Страхование, you have to pay a deductible. So, if the repairs
cost $3,000 and your collision deductible is $1,000, your insurance company• Страхование » Страховые компании
would cover the balance of $2,000.
“It wouldn’t be uncommon to have a $1,000 deductible,” Mitchell said. “It goes
much higher with high-value vehicles, namely because of the theft problems
these days.”
Faulty reasoning?
If you do have collision insurance• Страхование and your deductible is less than the cost
of repairs, then you should figure out who was at fault, Mitchell said.
Several provinces, including Alberta, Ontario , Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova
Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland have specific
fault-determination rules that decide which driver is at fault in most
situations. Sometimes, the fault is shared.
“If you have collision, you are within your rights to file a collision claim,”
Mitchell said. “Now, whether it’s sensible to do so is a math equation
triggered by the fault-determination rules.”
If you were even partly at fault, your insurance company• Страхование » Страховые компании could raise your
rates. Or if your policy has accident forgiveness on your first collision, and
you were to file a claim, you could lose that.
“If you’re speaking to [your insurance company• Страхование » Страховые компании] and you’re disclosing an
accident, they could put that on your record,” Mitchell said. “Even if they
deny coverage or confirm you don’t have coverage, they could be recording [an
at-fault collision] on your driving record.”
So, it’s a good idea to check the rules before submitting a claim, Mitchell
said. Generally, the rules are cut and dried .
“If you’re opening a door and a cyclist hits your door, you’re at fault; it’s
your job to make sure it’s clear,” Mitchell said. “Same as if you’re merging
out of a parking spot into traffic and a cyclist hits you. … Although you
would describe the cyclist as reckless, well, actually, the onus is on you and
maybe you didn’t see them.”
Home advantage?
If you do make a collision claim, could your insurance company• Страхование » Страховые компании try to get the
money back from the cyclist – if they know who they are?
While insurance• Страхование companies could sue the cyclist, that costs them money and is
unlikely unless there’s a lot of damage, Mitchell said.
“If you started adding three more zeros [to the value of the claim] and we’re
getting up to very large numbers, then that’s a different case,” Mitchell
said. “But at $3,000 [in damage], for example, it would cost the insurance
company• Страхование » Страховые компании more just for a lawyer’s letter to even attempt [a lawsuit].”
But what if, for example, a cyclist slammed into your parked car – meaning
they were at fault – and gave you their name and contact information?
I’d love to think that you could shake hands and [the cyclist] would go to a
bank account and bring you $3,000 for the damages,” Mitchell said.
But if the cyclist didn’t – or couldn’t – pay, you could make a collision
claim through your insurance company• Страхование » Страховые компании. Then you could try to sue them in small
claims court for the deductible.
Although cyclists don’t have vehicle insurance• Страхование » Автострахование, they may have liability
coverage under their home or tenant insurance• Страхование – or if they privately bought
bicycle liability insurance.
“There is a small little allotment inside many homeowners’ policies called
voluntary property damage and voluntary liability, ” Mitchell said. “If you’re
at my house and you break my favourite vase … you can file [a claim] with your
company and be writing me a cheque [typically for up to $1,000]. You don’t see
this used very often, but in a case where a cyclist stayed around and was
willing to [pay], they could consider this coverage.”
Cyclists at disadvantage?
Could the answer here be requiring insurance• Страхование for cyclists the same way we
insure drivers?
“Where would you draw the line there? Is it [the size] of the e-bike motor?
Does a three-year-old with a tricycle need it?” Mitchell said. “I think in the
grand scheme of things, the amount of damage that [bikes and e-bikes] can do
is nowhere near any order of magnitude of what a vehicle can do.”
While there might be “rare fringe cases” where bicycles cause severe injury
and death, a car requires insurance• Страхование because it is “a big, deadly hunk of metal
with huge horsepower that [can] easily kill and maim people,” Mitchell said.
If Ontario passes proposed legislation to remove bike lanes on three major
roads in Toronto, Mitchell expects more conflicts – and crashes – between cars
and bikes.
“We could very well be getting more tangle-ups in Toronto in the coming future
[without] demarcated lanes keeping everybody separate,” he said. “Nine times
out of 10, the bike is going to be the loser.”
Have a driving question? Send it to globedrive@globeandmail.com and put
‘Driving Concerns’ in your subject line. Emails without the correct subject
line may not be answered. Canada’s a big place, so let us know where you are
so we can find the answer for your city and province.
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