If you are injured by someone driving a Segway you may be able to get economic, non-economic damages and punitive damages. In Florida, economic damages are:
Past lost income and future lost income reduced to present value; medical and funeral expenses; lost support and services; replacement value of lost personal property.
Non-economic damages are:
Pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, mental anguish, and loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life.
Punitive damages are designed to punish the wrongdoer (person who caused the accident). In order to recover punitive damages, you would generally need to show that the Segway driver that hit you was recklessly driving or was driving under the influence (drunk).
You cannot get punitive damages if you all you can show is that the driver that hit you was carelessly driving. You could also get punitive damages if you can show that the Segway rental company was reckless in their maintenance of their Segways.
The reality is that most personal injury cases – including accidents caused by a Segway driver or rental company – settle. You can check out some settlement ranges in Florida for the following types of injuries:
I suggest taking the following steps to determine whether you are entitled to money if someone riding a Segway injures them:
1. Determine whether the person riding the Segway was at fault. IF YOU HAVE AN ACCIDENT – NOTIFY THE POLICE IMMEDIATELY. Even if the Segway driver is cooperative and gives you his or her contact information, you should still call the police immediately.
From my experience, most often (but not always) the party cited in an incident report for causing an accident is actually liable. I believe that if you contact the police, the at fault Segway driver is less likely to deny that an accident happened (and is more likely to stick to what they said at the accident scene) if the police issue a report.
2. Get witness info and take pictures. You should get names, addresses, and phone numbers of persons involved and witnesses. get the driver license number of persons involved. Having the driver’s license number may give you an additional way to track down the Segway driver. Witnesses can be very important. If you can get an affidavit from a witness stating that the Segway driver caused the accident that may help.
You should also take pictures of your injuries, the Segway, the Segway driver, and the accident scene following the accident. You may want to know the 2 biggest reasons to take pictures after an accident.
3. Find out whether the driver of the Segway blames the Segway for not working properly (e.g. brakes did not work properly, etc.) and causing the accident. I would call the Segway driver, or hire an investigator to, and ask the driver whether any problems with the Segway may have caused the accident. If the driver blames the Segway, you should get an affidavit (sworn statement) from him or her that states that the Segway was faulty and this caused an accident.
If you are able to get this affidavit, you should send it to the Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurer along with all of your medical bills and proof of your lost wages. Although it is best to send documents that prove your economic and non-economic damages to the CGL insurer, you should not speak with the insurance adjuster on the phone.
If you treated at the hospital, you should request the medical bills for all the medical providers (radiologists, ER doctors, pathologists, specialists) that treated you at the hospital. You can get the CGL insurer’s contact information by sending a letter requesting it to the Segway rental company. The name of the Segway rental company may be listed on an incident or crash report. A simple Internet search should get their address and possibly email or fax number.
Practically speaking, the Segway rental company’s CGL insurance policy may be your (a pedestrian’s) best hope in getting paid if you are badly injured. This is because the Segway rental company may have a CGL insurance policy that may pay provide anywhere from $100,000 to $1,000,000 or so in liability coverage if the Segway rental company’s negligence caused the accident.
In order to get part of, or all of, this liability coverage your would need to prove that amount of your medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering and other special damages1 justifies it. Remember that
If the Segway rental company does not have maintenance records for the Segway that was involved in your accident then the CGL insurer may realize that the rental company has some fault – possibly 50% or so – and the CGL insurer may pay 50% or so of your full damages (medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, etc.) if you did not cause the accident.
You should try to get the other 50% from the operator of the Segway. In Florida, even if you are partially at fault for causing the accident, you may still have a good case. Your damages will reduced by the amount of your fault. So, if you are 50% at fault, you may get 50% of the damages that you would get if you were not at fault.
If the Segway CGL insurance company determines that the Segway rental company did not fail to maintain the Segway, they may deny liability and you may not get an offer from them. The CGL insurer may determine that the Segway rental company did not fail to maintain the Segway if they can produce adequate maintenance records for the Segway. Often times the Segway rental companies will not be able to produce these maintenance records.
4. Send a letter to the Segway driver asking him/her to:
a) Give you the Segway owner’s liability insurer contact information. If the Segway rental company owns the Segway, the rental company may have a $10,000.00 or so rental liability insurance policy that will pay you if the Segway driver caused your accident. This insurance would apply even if the Segway rental company did nothing wrong to contribute to the crash. This insurance is different from the CGL insurance mentioned in above in #2 above.
b) Forward/send a letter to the Segway personal use liability insurer asking the insurer to provide you with the limits of liability coverage as well as state whether there are any coverage defenses that may prevent the insurer from providing coverage to their insured. The insurance company should respond – with the insurance policy information – just like they do in an auto accident case.
Some insurers in Florida, such as Progressive and Nationwide (and possibly others), sell Segway personal use liability insurance, which will pay money to you if you are injured by the negligence of the Segway operator.
According to a salesperson that I spoke with from Progressive, their Segway’s HT Insurance policies in Florida start at $10,000 per person and $20,000 per accident and go as high as $500,000 per accident.
If someone insured with Progressive Segway Insurance hits you, you would be able to collect $10,000 if you can show that your damages (medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, etc.) are $10,000.00 or more.
c) Give you his or her homeowners or renters insurance company contact information. Perhaps his/her policy will cover you if you are injured because of the Segway operator’s negligence.
On 4/5/13, I spoke with a State Farm agent and she informed me that an umbrella insurance policy with State Farm will cover its insured if he or she causes injury to another while on a rented Segway.
Ask him or her to forward/send the letter to his or her insurance company asking the insurer to provide you with the limits of liability coverage as well as state whether there are any coverage defenses that may prevent the insurer from providing coverage to their insured.
In Florida, I do not believe that uninsured and underinsured vehicle coverage (UM and UIM) will cover a pedestrian hit by a Segway. In order for UM/UIM insurance to apply, a pedestrian must be hit by a “motor vehicle.” Florida Statute 627.732(3) defines “Motor Vehicle” as any self-propelled vehicle with four or more wheels…required to be licensed for use on the highways.
A Segway doesn’t fit this definition because it only has 2 wheels and is not required to be licensed for use on the highways.
5. Someone hit by a Segway could have a better case than if hit by a car.
If you are hit by a Segway, your case may be worth more than if you were hit by a car or truck. This is because Segway’s are not covered by Personal Injury Protection (P.I.P.) insurance and thus you do not need to prove that you had an injury (usually a permanent injury) such as the injuries listed in 627.737(2)(a-d) in order to get pain and suffering.
On the other hand, as described in #3 above, to get money from the Segway owner’s insurer you have to prove that the owner of the Segway was actively negligent (e.g. actually did something wrong). Whereas, if you were hit by a car, the owner is liable for your damages even if they did nothing wrong and gave his or her perfectly working car to the at fault driver.
6. Did you sign a release?
Generally speaking, you have a better case if you are hit by someone riding a Segway that if you were injured – while riding a rented Segway that was not working properly. This is because if you rented a Segway, you may have signed a release (at the time that you rented the Segway) that releases the rental company from any negligence, including the Segway rental company’s negligence. It is very important to look at the release language in a Segway rental agreement.
If you are hit by a Segway, and the Segway lessor signed a release it does not affect your personal injury case against him or her.
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