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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!ut-sally!crandell
From: crandell@ut-sally.UUCP (Jim Crandell)
Newsgroups: net.legal,net.auto
Subject: Re: Uninsured motorism
Message-ID: <2971@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Sep-85 14:51:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.2971
Posted: Mon Sep 23 14:51:42 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 11:56:43 EDT
References: <202@SCIRTP.UUCP> <378@kontron.UUCP> <586@ttidcc.UUCP>
Reply-To: crandell@sally.UUCP (Jim Crandell)
Distribution: net
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 36
Xref: linus net.legal:2031 net.auto:7234

In article <734@utastro.UUCP> bill@utastro.UUCP (William H. Jefferys) writes:
>> In article <757@nmtvax.UUCP> allan@nmtvax.UUCP (Allan F. Perry) writes:
>> >I think that an uninsured/underinsured motorist clause is a good thing to
>> >have with your insurance.  A couple years ago, while I was sitting in the
>> >house studying and heard a loud crash...
>> 
>> Yup.  And I'll fill you in on a little secret.  If you HAD had UUM
>> coverage, you'd STILL have been out a car.
>
>I checked my policy.  It clearly states that included is  a vehicle
>	"Which is a hit and run vehicle whose operator or
>	owner cannot be identified..."

Okay, you got me.  I knew at this point that something was probably wrong,
leaning on the assumption that Jefferys and I both have legal Texas
auto insurance policies.  Funny thing; mine contains language much like
the stuff in his.  Has it changed?  I actually found the policy that
was in effect in '81 when my car got wrecked (there are some benefits
to being a packrat) and it, oddly, says the same thing, though not in
the same words.  I bring this up not so much to make excuses for myself,
however severly mauled I may have been, but because I think there's a
useful lesson in it.  Where did I get the idea that my policy didn't
cover hit-and-run accidents when it clearly stated the contrary, you
ask?  Good question, but the answer is easy.  Instead of digging out
the policy and reading it, I called my insurance agency on the phone
and asked.  It's a big Independent^(circle-R) agency (= lots of people
work there) and some of the agents are very good, but occasionally you
will meet one who doesn't really know what's going on.  The moral, if
there is one, must be this: if you want to know what an insurance
policy covers, read it yourself first.

And of course, I apologize for spreading misinformation on the net.
-- 

    Jim Crandell, C. S. Dept., The University of Texas at Austin
               {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!crandell