Personal Injury Lawyers Advise Motorcycle Safety Class to Lower Insurance Rates and Accidents

Lower Insurance Rates with a Motorcycle Safety Course

Motorcycle riders should know that many of the factors that affect motorcycle insurance rates are similar to those that affect your car insurance rates. Age, vehicle type and your driving history all influence insurance premiums.

Personal injury lawyers advise a motorcycle safety course as an easy way to your insurance rates. South Carolina does not require that you take a safety course but you are less likely to need a personal injury lawyer if you do.

Why Take a Motorcycle Safety Course?

A motorcycle safety course is designed to make you a safer driver. As a safer driver, you lessen your insurance company’s risk of having to pay out a claim. For that reason alone, insurance companies often offer discounts (often between 10% and 15%) to riders who complete an approved motorcycle safety course.

Of course, motorcycle safety courses provide benefits outside of insurance discounts. Being a safer motorcycle rider makes you less likely to:

Have an accident.
Get injured.
Damage your motorcycle.
Incur hefty fines for traffic violations.
In some states, such a course can even be used to waive the motorcycle license skill test and/or knowledge test required to get your motorcycle license.

Finding a Motorcycle Safety Course

Look for a course that is at the appropriate level for your current motorcycle driving skills.

Beginner courses will help you improve basic skills that are often required for obtaining your motorcycle license.

Basic courses can include training on the following skills:

Mounting the motorcycle.
Safe riding techniques.
Street strategies.
Proper riding gear.
Stopping and braking.
Shifting.
Increasing visibility.
Clutch control.
Throttle control.
Advanced classes typically go over additional skills that are more in-depth and appropriate for very experienced riders. Skills taught often include:

Threshold braking.
Decreasing radius curves.
Cornering adjustment.
Negotiating multiple curves.
Space management.
Defensive riding techniques in traffic.
Swerving techniques.
Your motorcycle insurance company will likely only grant you a discount in your insurance rates if you complete an approved motorcycle safety course.

Usually, courses offered by the non-profit organization Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) are approved. You can check the MSF website to look for courses in your area.

You can also check with your state’s DMV to find which courses and providers are approved in your state.

What You’ll Need

Before the Class

Before beginning a motorcycle class, check to make sure that you bring everything you need to class so that you can successfully complete the course.

The Motorcycle Safety Foundation asks students to bring the following to clas:s

Enough food and beverages for breaks and lunch.
A pen for classroom instruction sessions.
Suitable riding attire, including a long-sleeve top, long pants, boots, full-face helmet, and full-finger gloves.
In some cases, you may need to bring your own bike. Make sure you check the requirements to see if one will be provided.

After the Class

Once you’ve taken your course, contact your insurance company to notify them of completion.

Be sure that you keep your course completion card handy after completing a course, since your insurance company may require your card as proof of completion.

Note that a completion card from another state is not likely to be accepted in your current state of residence.

Our Policy: If you have been injured or lost a loved one in an accident, we would like to help you. You can see us for free. In fact, we’re paid our fee and we recover expenses only if we collect money for you on your claim. Fees will be calculated before deducting the expenses advanced on behalf of the client.
For a free confidential consultation and information on how a personal injury lawyer at the Clekis Law Firm can put over 40 years of combined experience to work for you, please contact us.