FAIR GAME:Don’t delay on reading the small print

Do you know where your kids are?

It’s a question that has seemed to haunt most parents for years.

Most of you know what I’m talking about. It’s late at night, you’re expecting your son or daughter home and they haven’t arrived. You call their cell phone and there’s no answer.

You pace back and forth, looking out the window for car lights, any car lights. You even check to make sure the ringer on your phone hasn’t somehow been turned off.

And kids wonder why their parents’ hair turns gray.

Most of the time, fortunately, everything turns out fine. But it takes just one time, one moment, and the course of a life can be changed.

Three-and-a-half years ago, my youngest daughter, Victoria, one day shy of her 18th birthday, was waiting to be picked up by her boyfriend for a drive out to Moreno Valley. His family was having a birthday party.

It was raining out, and after the usual father-to-boyfriend talk, “be extra careful because of the rain, drive safely, wear your seatbelts, no alcohol, and don’t be too late home,” they headed out.

Everything seemed fine. Somewhere, however, during that one-hour drive, unbeknownst to my wife and me, the boyfriend got tired from the previous late night out and asked my daughter to drive his truck so he could get some sleep. She did. And he did.

As their drive was drawing to an end, in bumper-to-bumper, slow-moving traffic, the car in front of them spun out of control. Victoria veered to the left to avoid a collision.

Her vehicle fish-tailed around, struck a pole and subsequently rolled down a hill.

The call came a short time later with word of the accident.

My wife and I immediately headed out to Riverside County Hospital and found our daughter bruised and shaken. Her boyfriend, with multiple cuts, had a broken leg. Surgery for him would follow, and his leg would be repaired. We were lucky!

That’s the time when you take a deep breath and thank God both are OK and you’re fully covered with the proper insurance to handle the situation.

Or so I thought. The boyfriend sues us, and our insurance carrier, Mercury, insists his carrier (State Farm) is responsible for our legal defense because it’s his truck involved.

State Farm says no and denies us coverage. We appeal to Mercury. They continue to cite exclusion after exclusion, and, too, deny us.

To make a long story short, or a short story expensive, three years and nearly $100,000 in out-of-pocket legal fees later, still no defense.

It’s good to know that’s what $5,000 a year in insurance premiums gets you.

So here’s a warning to you all: Get that insurance policy out this weekend. Forget about the golf game, don’t go to the fair, no symphony for you. Just sit there and read all that legalese in the small print. You know, the whereas and the so forths.

Oh, and by the way, my daughter is looking for a new boyfriend. Surprise, surprise. I promise you she won’t drive.