What exactly does the PCA/SCCA liability policy cover?

Great info... Based on much of what you posted, I plan to do primarily scca. The liability issues worry me, perhaps I am overly concerned. If the car gets damaged, I can deal with it. Getting sued and not having any support, would really be life altering...

I was sued once for med mal. Did nothing wrong, but took 3 years of my life. Legal fees were over a hundred grand. I won, as the case should never have gone anywhere. Lesson learned : you don't have to do anything to get sued...

It amazes me that folks do Pca/fca with possibly no liability coverage. Perhaps it's not an issue...

But I gotta say, the one million in medical coverage and 10 million in liability is huge...

 

I'm a doc too...

It is in our Humana policy that racing is excluded. I know, was suprised to find it. I was reviewing the life insurance policy which DIDN'T mention racing, so figured I would look at the health insurance... which DID.

Perhaps this is a policy by policy issue. Perhaps the employer picks what they want... Not sure. But check your policies carefully...

Bo

 

Excludes racing, skydiving, and experimental aircraft.

Also states that it you get into a car accident without your seat belt, there is a $10,000 fine before your insurance kicks in...

Read you fine print .

 

Of interest... found an interesting analysis of the safety of racing. This was posted in 2004, by a race card driver. Not sure how accuarte it is, but its the only statistical evaluation I could find looking for the safety of HPDE. This evaluation is for racing, so HPDE should be even safer...

Long and short of it, racing is safer than riding a motorcycle on the street...



09 Mar 2004 07:19 AM





When I told my wife in 2001 (she was 3 months pregnant) that I wanted to start racing (EP Elva) she said she was going to leave me because of the risk I was putting her and our child in. She said if I were injured or killed my income would go away and my children would grow up fatherless or tending to a critically injured father. It put a ton of stress on the relationship, but I was steadfast in my goal of racing so I decided to come up with a sound argument.

I had always heard that "club racing is safer than driving on the highway and downhill skiing" but no one had the stats to prove it. People at the track said "because of all the safety measures that the SCCA has introduced, your race car is much safer than your highway car" and "I would much rather drive with licensed club drivers than those crazies on the street".

Despite all those anecdotes no one had stats to prove how safe Club Racing was - not even the SCCA. I called the SCCA rep who handled the insurance for SCCA and he told me the insurance company only focused on the previous year's payouts (dollar figures) not how safe it is to actually race relative to other things.

So I did my own analysis. I got the SCCA rep to give me all the deaths from 1989 through 2000 in Club Racing (16). I subtracted the deaths which were caused by heart attacks (6) figuring I was in good enough shape to avoid one and came up with 10 deaths from 1989 through 2000 caused by accidents. I then made some assumptions to come up with how many miles were driven in Club Racing during that time period so that I could come up with deaths per 100 million miles driven (see below for the calculation). That is the statistic that the National Highway Saftey Administration uses. I found that Club Racing is as safe as driving on a US highway in 1966. However it is 3.6x more dangerous than driving on the highway in 1999 (due to all the car safety improvements). The kicker for me was that Club Racing is 15x safer than riding a motorcycle on the street. Since I owned a motorcycle, I argued that I was significantly improving my safety characteristics by racing instead of riding. I also mentioned that no one thought any body was crazy driving a car on the street in 1966. The argument helps dissaude a lot of comments that I get from workers and family about how crazy I am. Hope it helps.


SCCA Club Racing
1989 through 2000
Deaths 16
Less: Deaths by Heart Attack (approximate) (6)
Deaths by Accident 10
Years 12
Avg Accident Deaths per Year 0.83
Race Events per Year 242
Avg number of cars on track at any given time 35
Avg Hours on Track per Event 20
Avg MPH achieved by cars on track 90
Avg number of miles driven at an event 63,000
Number of miles driven over the course of a year 15,246,000
Deaths per 100 million miles driven 5.5

SCCA Club Motorcycle
US Fatality Rates per 100mm miles driven - all vehicles, all roads Multiple Multiple
Year 1966 5.5 1.0 x 10.3 x
Year 1989 2.2 2.5 x 13.8 x
Year 1999 1.5 3.6 x 15.6 x





Very interesting!!! In another way:

Deather Per 100 Million miles:

Cars: 1.3
Race cars: 5.5
Motorcycles: 33

."...a marked jump in the motorcycle death rate, from 21 deaths per 100 million estimated vehicle miles traveled on motorcycles in 1997 to 33.4 deaths per 100 million miles in 2001 – an increase of more than 50%. The NHTSA notes that passenger car riders have a death rate of 1.3 per 100 million miles, a fraction of the risk of motorcyclists."

 

Quick follow up. I decided to call the SCCA to clarify what their coverage does or doesn't cover. In speaking with the person I was connected with, she was very confused about the question and was unable to answer. She was very nice, and started to look at their web page to see what was covered.

So, I composed an email and forwarded it to the SCCA to see if they can shed some light. Email and copy of their commercial liability policy below. I will let folks know what I hear back.

Bo


Email:

I was hoping that you could provide me with some information in regards to the SCCA liability coverage on your website (referenced below). I wasn’t sure who to email, as no legal contact was listed on the SCCA website. It seems like there are periodically tragic accidents that occur, and unfortunately this sometimes leads to lawsuits. The SCCA website mentions that there is $10,000,000 in liability coverage included as a member, and that this insurance extends to all participants/instructors/etc as an additional insured. This is wonderful, especially in today’s higher risk climate. Would you be able to clarify exactly what this covers (or steer me to someone that might have the info?)

I know that everyone signs a liability waiver when participating in HPDE/Racing, unfortunately lawsuits have occurred (eg. FCA region 2006 for CGT crash for 4.5mm; 2014 instructor sues student at Viper Club HPDE for accident, etc, etc). This is the risk that I suspect most drivers are worried about. I believe most folks know that their cars aren’t covered, nor does their regular car insurance typically cover them. Some companies do offer collision insurance (Lockton, etal), but rarely liability.

The SCCA website mentions in several locations that participants are covered by the liability policy. Could you offer some insight into the following scenarios, and whether SCCA’s liability policy would provide coverage?

a) Driver A wipes out and hits a bystander/observer/pitworker/instructor/parked car/etc?
b) Driver A wipes out with an instructor on board, and the instructor is hurt and then sues Driver A.
c) Driver A hits Driver B, and causes serious injuries, and Driver B sues Driver A
d) Driver A has a mechanical failure (spills oil) and Driver B crashes, and sues for damages

I recognize that the waiver should prevent most issues, but in many states the signing of a liability waiver doesn’t prevent a lawsuit or judgement. I have spoken to several SCCA drivers and they believe that the SCCA liability policy does protect them in the aforementioned scenarios. If you could verify this, that would be much appreciated. My understanding is that the SCCA liability policy is stronger than that of PCA/FCA in speaking to scca members. If this is the case, this would certainly be helpful to share as it would attract even more membership.

Sincerely,

XXXX

Reference, commercial liability policy as posted on the website:

General Description:
This insurance is intended to protect SCCA/SCCA Pro, and their regions and members, and track
owners, landowners and sponsors of the event, drivers and their crews, and owners and sponsors
of vehicles entered in an event from Bodily Injury, Property Damage, Personal Injury, or
Advertising Injury claims arising out of a covered incident at a SCCA or SCCA Pro event.
Type of Coverages:
The limits of the coverages are:
Coverage: Limits
Bodily Injury (Spectator Liability) $10,000,000 per occurrence
Legal Liability to Participants $10,000,000 per occurrence
Products Liability $10,000,000 aggregate
Contractual Liability $10,000,000 per occurrence
Personal and Advertising Injury Liability $10,000,000 per occurrence
Host Liquor Liability $10,000,000 per occurrence
Medical Professional Liability $10,000,000 per occurrence
Officers and Stewards Errors
and Omissions Coverage $250,000 per occurrence
Damage to Rented Premises $10,000,000 per occurrence
Restricted Area Personal Property Damage $250,000 per occurrence*
(includes Official Vehicles)
*$1,000 deductible applies
Please note that the Deductible is “Zero” as it pertains to physical damage to the track, defined
above as “Damage to Rented Premises”. The Per Occurrence Limit is $10,000,000.
Exclusions:
The exclusions include, but are not limited to:
Concerts
Amusement Rides
Thrill Shows
Events where no system is in effect to collect Waiver and Release forms from persons
entering restricted areas.
Please note that this document represents a brief summary of the SCCA’s insurance program.
Each claim, loss or incident will be reviewed and adjudicated based on the actual policy terms,
conditions, limitations and exclusions within the policy c

 

I am a member... Never recieved a copy of the policy? Was referred to website, which includes the summary I posted above... Was thinking of buying on course liability as at least one company offers it. But whats the point if its laready provided by the scca?

Of interest, the policy summary above states that you are covered for track damage with "no deductible." Thats nice, assuming its accurate...