A NOTE ON WHETHER CAR INSURANCE COVER OTHER DRIVERS OR NOT
While you shop for car insurances, a common question that will come to your mind are does car insurance cover other drivers or not. A very common myth in the world about car insurances is that auto insurance covers the driver and not the vehicle. In reality, this is just the opposite way round. Car insurance in general follows the vehicle and does not cover the driver. However, it is not so easy to answer this question in just one line. This article will help you understand the various nitty-gritty’s of the insurance laws and by the end of this article you would get a comprehensive answer to the question,
Who is covered under the car insurance?
A rule of thumb regarding who is covered while driving a car that is insured is that anyone who belongs to the same household will be covered. Unless the member of the house is not included by you in the Excluded Drivers list, he or she would be covered by the car’s insurance. The excluded list is a list which has to be determined by the owner while buying the policy, wherein he can exclude a member of the house with tarnished driving record. This saves a lot of money for the owner while he buys the car insurance.
If you loan your car to a friend or family member who does not live with you in the same house, under grounds of ‘permissive use’, that person would be eligible to be covered under the insurance of the car.
Role of liability coverage
Most of the American states (barring New Hampshire) have the minimum requirement of a liability insurance of a car when it hits the roads. It is okay for the law if you do not have any other coverage with your car insurance, but the liability coverage has to be there which will cover the damages caused to other people by your car that gets into an accident. By virtue of this coverage, if another driver drives a car and gets injured from an accident, he would still be covered as the car’s liability coverage would be treating him as the third party who has been injured by the insured vehicle.
However, liability coverage will not be applicable if the other driver belongs from your family, and it would not cover the damages of the car itself. If you have to get the vehicle’s damages to be covered as well, you will need to have collision and comprehensive coverage with your car insurance.
When would the owner be liable?
Coming back to the question of does car insurance cover other drivers or not, there could be many situations apart from the ones which are already discussed above. If you had given permission to use your car to someone who was intoxicated or impaired to drive or did not hold a valid driving license at the time of the use of the car, the liability of the injuries or damages would be fully on you. In these cases, most insurance coverages will not cover up the damages and the whole amount would have to be paid out of your own pocket.
If the car is driven by someone who neither belongs from your family, nor you had given him the permission to use the car, the following things could be possible.
• If the person using your car is insured and causes damage, that loss will be covered by his insurance first, and in case the limits of his policy are busted, the rest of the amount will have to be covered by your policy.
• If the person using the car is uninsured and is using the car without your permission, he would be covered by your insurance only by the virtue of the liability coverage. However, this depends on the policies of the insurance carrier as well.
• If the person uses your car without you allowing him to, and if he does not belong from your family or friends group, you can report a theft and the liability of any damage or injury caused by your car in that case will not come on you.
All these situations would occur only if you can prove to the insurer that you had not given permission to the other driver to use your car, which might be little difficult at times to prove. If you cannot prove that the car was used without your permission, you would be liable for the injury of the driver or the damages caused by the car and your insurance will have to cover it up.
If the car is being used by your permission, and it meets an accident, the liability of the damage and injuries would first fall on the owner of the car, which in this is you. Your liability coverage would be used to pay for the injuries and damages of the other driver. However, if the limits of your insurance are exhausted and the cost of the damage is not repaid in full, the personal insurance of the other driver would come into the picture and would be paying the differential amounts.
Things you can do
While you buy the car insurance, you can include the names of all those people who live in the same house and would possibly drive the car some time or the other. That would get these people covered automatically under the insurance’s umbrella without any hassle. Be very careful about those names that you would be putting on the Excluded Drivers list. If any of those ‘excluded’ drivers end up using your car and meet an accident, your insurance will not cover him and you would be in a difficult situation.
The next time you loan your car to someone, make sure that you known him properly, check whether he is insured and has a valid driving license, and ensure that he is not impaired or intoxicated at the time you allow him to drive your car. With the uninsured motorist coverage on your insurance, you can ensure that even if an uninsured person uses your car, they would be covered under the insurance policy.
Other post you may be interested in reading: Information About Minimum Liability And Other Car Insurances In Texas and Things To Know About Car Insurance For Rentals