Coverage for Your Passengers when You're at Fault

[experiencedautoadjuster]

I handle VA claims!!
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Are you still looking for answer? And your wrong the BI portion of your policy does cover them. If they have medpay on their auto policy that will cover them also. MEDPAY is a no fault coverage however BI is what jacks your rates up.
In Va once the insurance company pays out over 900 bucks your policy starts getting surcharged.

Want me to keep going?
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Oh yeah and you can get medpay coverage up into the hundreds of thousands if the insurance company your with offers that

 

[sideshowmel]

Thanks for the responses. To summarize, most of you agree that the exposure is there and that an umbrella would be necessary to cover it. Although, experiencedautoadjuster disagrees and says that BI would cover your liability to your passengers if you were at fault (I saw some line of thought similar to this elsewhere on the internet but it was definitely in the small minority).

 

[experiencedautoadjuster]

Well I handle VA claims since I'm in VA. I can tell you that IF the passenger wants to present a BI claim they can. Va is a triple dip state when it comes to reimbursement. I handle claims like that all day long especially divorced parents. If their children are in an accident with say the father and he's at fault and kids are injured. There are plenty of mothers who will go after the fathers liability. It's not a nice thing to do by any means but is it available yes.

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Do you have an umbrella? Because they are fantastic to have they definitely come in handy.
If you don't have one prior to the date of loss you can't go back and get one. Bummer I know.

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[joshb]

Uninsured/Underinsured, coverage would pay out after Medpay, in Florida, and I think GA is similar to FL. The gap is there in coverage, however, if you are in a 2 vehicle accident, and your not a fault, the other driver's BI "should" cover the cost. Thats is exactly, why the state minimums need to increase. In florida we have 10/20 as the min. 10,000 doesn't cover very much at all, but along with increasing the amounts of coverage required, it will cost you more money. It sounds like you want more coverage, but are you willing to pay for it too? If so buy more UM coverage, and buy an umbrella, that will fill your gap.

With that being said, its hard to comment on questions that differ by states. In Florida Uninsured and underinsured motorists coverage is the same, and will pay out in a not-at-fault or at-fault accident, while I think other states its not the same.

In regards to your second post, its not a hush-hush topic at all, we don't set the requirements or coverages that are to be sold on the policy, we only sell them and explain what is offered by the company. In regards to your opinion, on insurance agents, not all of us are bad, just like police officers there are a few that give us a bad name, don't always believe the stereotypes.

 

[experiencedautoadjuster]

That wouldn't apply bc the vehicle is insured and insured is at fault
If they lawyer up they will use your liability but it's not something you want to freely offer

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[Verbgravy]

Since it's state regulated, it varies so much. The states I do business in, I can write up to 500/500 with my preferred carriers.

 

[AgentProvocateur]

As it has been pointed out, how this would play out varies by the circumstances & state law.

However, it's not a gap in liability coverage which will be covered by an umbrella.

The risk to the passenger is they may be injured while riding in a car where the driver is not liable for the injury of the passenger. This is when BI does not apply -- because the driver was not legally liable for the injury of the passenger. There would be no coverage under an umbrella, either, because there is no need for coverage. If the injured passenger sues you, you have BI coverage & at the very least, the duty to defend.

However, you may want a passenger in your car to be covered for injury regardless of fault, so you buy Medical Payments coverage. 10k or 25k med pay can cover health insurance deductibles and co-pays related to the accident.

As experiencedautoadjuster pointed out, it gets tricky when the injured passenger is a spouse or resident family member, which is normally excluded from BI coverage, but may be covered depending on state law or case law in the state. This is my understanding, but keep in mind I'm not a lawyer.

There is no gap in auto liability coverage for unrelated passengers not residing in your household.

 

[GMANPRO]

Thanks for the responses. To summarize, most of you agree that the exposure is there and that an umbrella would be necessary to cover it. Although, experiencedautoadjuster disagrees and says that BI would cover your liability to your passengers if you were at fault (I saw some line of thought similar to this elsewhere on the internet but it was definitely in the small minority).

Like Josh said, there are too many state specifics to have a perfect answer. Insurance coverage is handled SOLELY by the state and is not standardized. If you want a "for sure" answer, google your state's department of insurance and call them.

Hope this helps brother!

 

[ShannonO]

This does depend on each company and the filing they've made in each individual state. Reading a basic ISO policy form however, the liability section doesn't say that it only covers the people you hit - it says that your policy covers bodily injury or property damage for which the insured is legally responsible because of an auto accident. If the accident is your fault, then you are legally responsible for the injuries to the passengers in your car.

If the passengers in your car are family members residing in your household then they are excluded from liability per the policy form (this is where med pay & PIP come in).

BUT again, this depends on each company and their specific state filing so read a policy form to be sure.

Shannon

Hello,

I've been doing some research and I've found that Bodily Injury Liability doesn't cover the passengers in your car if you're at fault in an accident (I don't live in a "no fault" state, so I don't know if it would be any different in those states). Your passengers would be covered by the Medical Payments portion of the policy (I don't live in a PIP state either).

The problem I see here is that options for Medical Payments coverage are much more limited than options for Bodily Injury Liability. For example, Med Pay coverage typically only goes up to 25 or 50k where as BI coverage goes up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. I have health insurance, so I'm not worried about myself but I have no control over whether my passengers have their own health insurance. It's easy to imagine an accident causing medical treatment costs to exceed 25 or 50k by quite a bit and if that happened to my passengers and they didn't have their own health insurance (or their health insurance wasn't adequate), I could be on the hook for the excess.

Can anyone explain why auto insurance policies are designed this way? Seems like it leaves you exposed to some large liability amounts. Or am I just missing something?

Thanks.

 

[bobson]

Hello,

I've been doing some research and I've found that Bodily Injury Liability doesn't cover the passengers in your car if you're at fault in an accident (I don't live in a "no fault" state, so I don't know if it would be any different in those states).

From where did you get this idea?