This article is in partnership with Law Tigers.
Few things are worse than getting hit by a car when you’re a motorcyclist. Not only do you generally lose your pride and joy, but pavement, gravel, and the hood of the car hurt when your body impacts them. Ask us how we know.
But there’s a secondary issue at play when you’re in an accident, one that doesn’t get talked about all that much, at least in terms of how much it sucks: insurance.
Dealing with insurance companies, even when you have excellent coverage, is already a nightmare. These companies’ sole jobs are to keep the money you pay them and not dole it back out when you need it most. It’s literally their business model. But hospitals are expensive. Motorcycle repairs are expensive. Getting back to the land of the living is expensive. And when insurance doesn’t want to pay out or when the person who hit you doesn’t have insurance, which is becoming more and more common, you’re often on your own and left to watch as hospital bills and repair quotes fly in.
You’re left alone and staring down bills that total hundreds of thousands of dollars, as was the case of motorcyclist, veteran advocate, and dog-lover Adam Sandoval. He tells RideApart his story below.
I was on this tour to visit every Harley-Davidson dealership in America as a fundraiser for veterans and children of veterans who lost their parents in active duty. Children who were left behind by soldiers who lost their lives. That ended up being an 88,000-mile road trip. And it took me about 20 months in total.
For the first part, I lived solely off my motorcycle, sleeping next to it, and letting strangers take me in and give me couches or spare bedrooms. I had no budget for hotels or anything like that. I was spending my life savings, putting it in my gas tank to drive around the country and raise money for veterans and these children.
It became a real mission for me. And it was a grind every single day, as I had a ride. It didn't matter if it was raining, it didn't matter if it was snowing, it didn't matter if it was a hurricane. I mean, it didn't matter what the temperature or what Mother Nature was throwing at me. I was sleeping next to my bike outside and riding every single day.
And it got to be really physically challenging, along with mentally challenging, but really physically challenging to do that every day. I would've quit if it wasn't for the veteran aspect of it. But I got to a point where I felt like something was wrong with me physically, like a disease or something. Something was wrong with me.
I was in Colorado and found a hospital that was gonna let me in and a doctor was gonna see me. But I had a ride that afternoon. I had to keep going down the road.
So I went to this doctor who asked me, “What's going on?” I said, “I don't know. I just feel like I'm sick. Like maybe I have a disease or something. Something's wrong.” But the doctor basically told me, Well, I don't know what to tell you. He is like, there's nothing I can do for you,” and went to leave the room when I asked, “What am I supposed to do?” He had the door open when he said, “I don't know, Google it or something.” And walked out the door.
I panicked a little bit. I went to bed that night and I slept on it, and woke up the next morning and said “ You know what, this is bullshit. This is what's wrong with our health system. I'm going to make a video.” So I told people what happened, and it went super viral. The next thing you know, a doctor reached out to me and said, I'll help you. Four or five weeks later, the doctor calls me and says, “Adam, there's nothing wrong with you. You’re perfectly healthy. Everything's in order. What you have though is extreme fatigue. You need to stop.”
But I'm not stopping. I'm three-quarters of the way done. I'm not stopping. I'm finishing this thing. He told me, however, “You need to stop. You need some rest. If you don’t, I don't know what to tell you. That's what you need. I really recommend you stop.” It was about two weeks after that that my accident happened and I was forced to stop.
Whether you're religious with divine intervention or whatever, I needed to stop and I was too stubborn and not willing to stop. So whatever it was, it came in and it stopped me.
The morning of the accident, the woman I was dating at the time told me, “I got a bad feeling” after I told her my day’s plans. But I got on my bike and I was riding down a back road. It was a two-lane road. And though normally I'm always in a hurry—I'm always behind—I remember being on this back road and saying, “Okay, I got time. I'm gonna make it. I'm comfortable.” I remember coming into this curve, and this lady in a Honda comes across the yellow line. I remember saying, “She's going to pull back. I'd seen it a bunch of times. She's gonna pull back, she's gonna pull back.” She didn't.
She ended up hitting me pretty much head-on. I cut to my right as hard as I could to try to avoid her, but she ended up hitting me at a 45-degree angle and smashing my leg between her car and my engine. I went down into the ditch.
Because of how remote I was, and the severity of my leg, they ended up calling in a helicopter and got me to a hospital for surgery.
The lady ended up having two kids in the car and she was texting and driving and just came across the yellow line and clipped me. But the bad part was I didn't understand liability insurance at the time.
To me, I was in my lane doing the speed limit, taking my time. I had done absolutely nothing wrong. I did my best to avoid the accident. I thought there would be no liability on my part. I thought it would she’d be liable since she was obviously getting a ticket and was texting and driving across the yellow line. And while the liability could fall on her, she had no home, she didn't own her car, she had no savings, and only had the state minimum liability insurance, which was like $20,000 in general.
My helicopter ride was $27,000.
I ended up racking up like $200,000 in medical bills but had no insurance myself. And while I believed that she’d be the one who’d take on the debt due to her being liable, Law Tigers explained to me, “You can sue her and you'll win, but she's gonna file bankruptcy and once she files bankruptcy, the hospitals are gonna collect from you. It's gonna come back to you, because you're the one who received the care.” My mind was blown. I had no idea how that worked at that time.
And that's something I work hard now to let people know is how important is to carry good policy limits and good coverage. Because if someone hits you, and God forbid they're driving illegally or they don't have insurance or any of the above, you can be liable and left completely in debt. For me, I had a good relationship with Law Tigers at the time, as they went out and negotiated with the hospital on my behalf and essentially got me completely out of debt.
I still walk with a limp, and I still have a really ugly left leg, which I tell little kids in the elevators that it’s from a shark attack. But I try to share my story because things can happen that are not your fault, and you could still be held liable. You need to protect yourself
I think the biggest disservice, or one of the biggest disservices our society, our school system, even our parents, did was to allow us to be brainwashed that when an accident happens, the first thing you can do, or the first thing you should do, is call your insurance company. They’re not your friend in that situation. You're calling them asking them to pay for your problems. They're not the first person you should be calling. They’re in the business of profit.
You have to cover yourself. And that’s where Law Tigers comes in.
They were good from the onset. They came and saw me before I even left the hospital. They came and talked to me, and kept me up to date with all the options. Now, they had a very difficult job of explaining to me that I had no insurance. The lady had no insurance. She had no equity. And that I was stuck with the bill. But they said, “We're gonna work with you the best we can to mitigate your damages. That's the best thing we can do for you at this point.” And the communication was awesome. They kept me in the loop. They let me know what was going on.
And the day they called me to tell me that I had zero debt, it made that conversation earlier where they told me I could be ruined a whole lot more manageable.
A Note from Law Tigers to Riders
Adam Sandoval’s story is a reminder of the risks on the road and how insurance might not cover everything. That's where Law Tigers comes in. We’re more than just a network of lawyers; we're riders who understand motorcycle accidents inside and out. We’re here to help you legally and support you all the way through your recovery. When Adam faced overwhelming medical bills and a financial crisis, Law Tigers stepped in. We worked on his behalf, negotiating his bills and turning a dire situation into a manageable one.
Don’t ride alone. Sign up for our free Rider Benefit Kit and join the Law Tigers community. With us, you are part of a family, a nationwide network of riders who stick together. Because on and off the road, Law Tigers always have your back.
