The 25/50/10 Problem: Why New York Minimum Insurance Leaves Riders Exposed
Every driver on the Cross Bronx, the BQE, and the Major Deegan is required to carry insurance. What almost nobody says out loud is how little that requirement actually guarantees. New York's minimum is 25/50/10, and for a motorcyclist those three numbers are the difference between being made whole and being left holding a stack of bills that belong to someone else. Because no-fault excludes riders, you do not have PIP to fall back on, which makes the other driver's limits, and your own coverage, far more important to you than to anyone in a car.
What 25/50/10 actually means
Those three numbers are the least a New York driver can legally carry. The 25 is 25,000 dollars, the most the policy pays for the bodily injury of any one person hurt in a crash. The 50 is 50,000 dollars, the total for all injuries in a single crash no matter how many people are hurt. The 10 is 10,000 dollars for property damage. Read that first number again. If a minimum-limit driver puts you in the hospital, the absolute ceiling on their policy for your injuries is 25,000 dollars. Not your medical bills, not your lost wages, not your pain and suffering. All of it, capped at 25,000.
How fast a serious injury blows past it
A motorcycle crash is not a fender bender. A single ambulance ride and emergency room visit can run five figures before anyone sets a bone. Add an orthopedic surgery, hardware, a hospital stay, and physical therapy, and you are past 25,000 dollars in the first days. A serious leg fracture, a shoulder reconstruction, or any head injury can generate six figures in medical bills alone, before you count a single day of lost wages or the long tail of future treatment. That minimum policy was never designed to cover a badly hurt motorcyclist. It runs dry almost immediately, and the at-fault driver personally is rarely worth chasing for the rest.
- ✓ Uninsured Motorist coverage. UM is required on your policy. It steps in when the driver who hits you has no insurance at all, which in this metro is not rare, or when they flee in a hit-and-run.
- ✓ Supplementary Underinsured Motorist coverage. SUM solves the 25/50/10 problem. When the at-fault driver has a policy but it is too small, your SUM pays the difference up to your own limit.
- ✓ It is your policy doing the work. SUM pays from your own insurer, based on coverage you chose to carry, which is exactly why it is the layer within your control.
- ✓ It stacks on top, not instead. SUM generally comes into play after the at-fault driver's limit is exhausted, adding to your recovery rather than replacing it.
How much SUM to carry
This is the part riders get wrong. Many carry SUM equal to the state minimum, or skip it, treating it as a place to save a few dollars. For a motorcyclist that is exactly backwards. Your SUM should match or exceed your own liability limits, and for a rider in a city full of minimum-limit and uninsured drivers, higher is almost always the right call. Think in terms of what a serious injury actually costs, six figures, not what the state will let you get away with. The difference in premium between bare-minimum SUM and a robust limit is usually small. The difference in what protects you after a crash on the Hutch or the LIE is enormous. You are the one most exposed by New York's thin minimums, so you should be the one carrying the most SUM.
Have questions after a wreck? Mary Ellen O'Connor and the motorcycle accident lawyers in New York at O'Connor Law (nyworkerslaw.com) review rider claims and explain your options.