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In order to answer that question, the reader needs to picture the appropriate situation. Suppose that you are a young man, and you work at a company close to your residence. Consequently, you take the train to work each day. In the evenings, you like to ride your bicycle. Then one night you get hit by an automobile.
The owner of a bicycle would have no reason to buy car insurance, if that were his only means of transportation. Still, the same person could get hit by a motorist. So, how can such a cyclist get compensated for any accident-caused damages?
The benefit available to residents of Ontario
Ontario provides all residents with statutory accident coverage. That means that each resident will be covered for medical expenses and income replacement, if he or she gets involved in any accident.
That benefit could be used by any of Ontario’s residents that collided with a motorist, while out riding a bicycle. The benefit’s existence can provide for one source of money, if the collision results in injury to the cyclist, or damage to the cyclist’s bicycle. Still that is not the cyclist’s only source of compensation. If the bicycle’s rider has a homeowner’s policy, that might be used to pay for any damaged property. The existence of that policy could come in handy, since Ontario’s statutory accident coverage does not ensure compensation for property damage.
What is the responsibility of the motorist?
The hit cyclist might be covered by the car insurance policy that was purchased by the at-fault driver. Of course, every car insurance policy has a limit to the amount of money that it will pay to any victim. Consequently, the bicycle rider would have his damages covered, up to a point. That point would be determined by personal injury lawyer in Hamilton the limit that has been stated in the other driver’s policy.
A second benefit provided to the residents of Ontario
This second benefit manages to fill in the gaps, the places where some type of damage has not been covered by any of the policies named above. It is called the Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund. The money from that Fund can be used to pay an accident victim up to $10,000.00 for replacement of damaged property. In addition, it can be used to pay an injured victim up to $200,000.00, in order to cover the victim’s medical expenses.
It should be obvious to the reader that Ontario’s fund can cover the needs of any bicycle rider that gets hit by a motorist. No bicycle would be worth more than $10,000.00; hopefully, no cyclist will sustain an injury that saddles the bicycle rider with more than $200,000.00 in medical expenses.