When starting a chapter one of the first challenges you will encounter is the question of insurance – both accident insurance, third party liability insurance and bicycle theft insurance. We receive many questions about insuring pilots and passengers during the rides, and since this is very individual from country to country, we thought it would be best to gather some inspiration from around the world.
We recently asked a few North American chapters about their insurance set-up:
Karen Lemaire, Director Therapeutic Support Services, from Bruyère Continuing Care in Ottawa, Canada
At Bruyère Continuing Care the bike is ridden by registered volunteers only. They each sign a waiver form and are insured through the Bruyère Continuing Care insurance plan as long as they are an active volunteer and signed into our volunteer software program. Our program has been running since July 28th (2016) and so far has been a huge success. The majority of the passengers are residents from our long term care facility and the feedback from both the residents and their family members has been phenomenal!
Bonnie Behnke, Development Director, Lutheran Homes, Oshkosh (LHO), WI, USA
LHO has added a rider to our current liability coverage to cover the rickshaws we have on campus (now 7). The pilots are “covered” as if they were any other volunteer within our organization. If there were to be an accident, and thankfully we have not had any in a year now of our program, each individual would have their own coverage, the elder, the pilot, and we have coverage for the rickshaw. We have each pilot sign a waiver stating they are operating under their own liability. If you would like a copy of the waiver we have drafted that we created with the help of our insurance carrier, I’m happy to share, just let me know. I hope this helps. Feel free to let me know if you have any other questions!
Cheryl Longinotti, Cycling Without Age Marin County, CA, USA
CWA Marin County is not yet affiliated with a retirement home so we obtained insurance through:
Scott Ziller, CIC
McKay Insurance Agency, Inc.
PO BOX 151 / 106 East Main Street
Knoxville, IA 50138
800.942.0283
F.641.828.2013
www.mckayinsagency.com
www.silentsportsinsurance.com
CA License No. 0K15361
CWA Marin County has a waiver form for passengers and volunteer pilots, which I will happily share with other affiliates.
Denmark
In Denmark all member municipalities are covered by a national accident and third party liability insurance, which is organized by Cykling uden alder (the name of the Danish CWA organization).
