Life can change in an instant. This is a story about the tragic hazards of driving while texting. It’s also the story of why having disability insurance can be a godsend if you are seriously injured for an extended period of time. Just ask Travis Guthman.
[Editor’s Note: This blog was originally published on April 3, 2017. The content has been updated.]
Travis Guthman and his wife, Wendy moved back to where he grew up, so he could buy his grandparents’ farm. It seemed like the ideal place to raise their six children. Travis and Wendy opened a pizzeria, which became very successful in short order.
One day, while driving his pizza van to pick up his son, he decided to answer a text. He looked away for only a split-second and tragically hit a concrete barrier on a narrow bridge. The paramedics had to literally cut the passenger door off of the van to rescue him.
Travis landed in the hospital for months, with a shattered pelvis and other injuries. After two years and countless surgeries, Travis relearned how to walk with the use of a leg brace. He didn’t step foot back in his restaurant for a year and half.
But luckily, Travis had disability insurance. When he first opened his restaurant, his insurance agent suggested that he also get disability insurance. After all, if he got injured for an extended period of time…who would make the pizzas?
Travis now admits that if he didn’t have disability insurance, the restaurant would have probably gone under. “I didn’t have to pull the money out of the restaurant to live on,” Travis says. “Instead, I could continue paying the employees and keep things running.”
Now Travis is back making pies…thanks to disability insurance. It allowed him to pay his bills, put food on the table, and keep the restaurant going strong.
“Without disability insurance, we would have been in a world of hurt,” Travis says. “You think it will never happen to you, until it does. Disability insurance has been a huge blessing for our family.”
For more information on disability insurance, talk to AccuQuote. We can provide quality, competitive disability insurance quotes from the top-rated, brand-name insurance companies you know and trust.
To hear more of Travis’ story, watch this video.
Video courtesy of Life Happens (www.lifehappens.org).
