Why do sports organizations need an accident insurance policy?
Why is general liability insurance not enough for sports organizations?
In order for most youth sports organizations to play on county or state owned fields they have to provide the municipality proof of general liability insurance coverage. If that is all that t they need to use the field, why are some agents or insurance companies requiring them to also carry an accident insurance policy? Generally, the general liability coverage is going to exclude coverage to the players themselves. So for example, a fly ball hits a mom sitting in the stands at a baseball game, this would be covered, but the player gets hit by a pitch, this would not be covered. The accident insurance policy fills in this gap and covers the player, if they are hurt while participating.
Concussions, which is a brain injury caused by a sudden blow to the head or body, has caused a lot of security in the youth sports world, bringing to light lifelong injuries these players could endure. There are some sports like football, lacrosse, rugby, ice hockey and wrestling and soccer where the ones deemed to be the most susceptible. But now, cheer leading, baseball and basketball are on the list. High-profile concussion settlements, such as those in the National Football League have brought concussions to light and caused people to be more focused on the potential liability that could arise out of the youth sports.
I had a friend’s daughter that was a great athlete; she played soccer, basketball and lacrosse. One day at her high school basketball game, she took an elbow to the back of her head. Her parents were in the stands, but did not think much of it. Until their daughter started running back to the basket and collapsed and blacked out mid court. They got the daughter off the court and by the time she was on the bench, she did not know her name, who her parents were or where she was. After numerous doctor visits, it was determined that she had multiple concussions over the years that had gone undetected and untreated and this just happened to be the event that caused serious injury. It took her well over a year to regain 90% of her memory back.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention; about 30 million Us Children and teen participate in some form of organized sports each year and one child visits the emergency room every 24 seconds due to a sports accident. Kids getting injured in the course of playing sports is common, and in order for the youth sports league to have the protection they need to have both general liability and sports accident policy. In addition, to having the proper coverage you also need to have the proper procedures in place to help prevent diagnosis and remove kids from sports that have had a concussion. Many of the carriers, will not only provide the insurance coverage to you, but will help you by providing additional loss prevention measures, and concussion plans and training for coaches and volunteers. Having the right insurance is one piece of the puzzle but as important is to make sure that you have the training of the coaches and volunteers of the signs of a concussion and how to respond.
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Do you cover tackle football at the high school level?
Kenny, Are you referring to High School sports or just referring to the age group? For the schools, they usually have access to their own insurance plans through the school systems that we do not have access to. If it is high school age playing in a league, there could be plans available. We do insure an adult soccer program for their liability and accident policies. Most of the plans exclude injuries sustained from direct participation in the sport being played though. That is where some of the school systems also have access to supplemental health insurance programs, which we do not offer here at Huff Insurance.