You and your friend decide to go for a drive to Publix, and since you’re not feeling it today, you want to let your friend drive your car instead of you driving the both of you. Sounds normal so far right? You guys finish shopping and decide to go back home and while your friend is driving your car you get in a car accident! No one is hurt, but your car is definitely in bad condition. Now the situation is complicated. Who’s insurance pays? Is it even your fault? 

Car accidents don’t necessarily involve just you and the person that hits you. Sometimes, there could be a third party. Whether it’s someone in the passenger seat or someone that is driving your car, a car accident can involve more than two people at a time.

What Do I Do? 

The first step in everything is to not panic. By panicking, you won’t have a clear mind and you may say or do things that you don’t need to say and might actually make it worse for you. After you think you have cleared your mind, follow these steps. 

• Make sure that both you and your friend are not injured. Injuries can happen, so to make sure of the situation you should check your partner for injuries. Ask them if they’re okay and also make sure that you are okay too. 
• Call the police. Getting a police report and getting the police’s conclusion on whose fault the accident was is important. It can become pivotal if it comes down to that. Fault is what determines who will be paying most or all of the costs for personal injury and property damage. So calling the police and getting their conclusion of whose fault it was can be vital in determining fault. 
• Get the other driver’s contact information. This is very important. You don’t want to lose sight of the person that hit you and your friend. Although you may very well end up speaking to the insurance company mostly, it does not hurt to keep their contact information.
• Call the insurance company. You have to report your accident to your insurance company. They will also be able to help you determine who’s at fault and also start the recovery process. Don’t try to bend the truth and whatever happened during the accident you must report to the fullest truth.
• Last but not least, take pictures of the accident. Take pictures of the damages on both cars. Just taking a picture of yours doesn’t make sense. The other will also be damaged and you have to show both sides. Also take a picture of the road and the weather. The driving conditions can also show if you were driving correctly. Take a picture of where the accident happened too. This will also help your case and show if you were really driving with safety in mind. 

When Your Insurance CAN Cover Damages

Knowing your insurance policy and being in check with your car insurance is the best way to prevent any bumps in the road after a car accident.

In most cases, even if someone else was driving your car, your insurance policy will cover for the damages to your car as long as you gave permission to the other person OR they are under your coverage. If that is the case, then all you need to worry about is mostly dealing with the other person’s insurance and proving that it was not your fault. 

If the person driving your car was your spouse or someone in your family that is under the insurance policy, then the damages will still be covered since they are insured. 

To sum up, as long as you gave the person permission or they are under the insurance policy, then they are able to be covered for whatever damages that happened during the accident.

When Your Insurance CAN’T Cover Damages

I just listed how you can know that you will be insured, but what about ways that you will not be insured? 

This is much more straightforward. 

If the person that was driving your car didn’t have permission to drive your car, then the liabilities and damages may fall under them. However, proving that this person had no permission to drive your car may be hard to prove. 

People that are not on your insurance policy can also make the case difficult to proceed with. If you let someone that was specifically left off or excluded from your insurance policy drive your car, then insurance will not cover damages. Why? Because now it is your fault for letting someone drive your car that you specifically excluded from potentially driving your vehicle. 

Other situations that your insurance cannot cover are, but not limited to, drunk driving and letting someone without a license drive your car. 

Contact a Personal Injury Lawyer

Why should you contact a personal injury lawyer? Well it’s quite simple. A personal injury lawyer can help you in many ways. Our team is equipped with bilingual paralegals and assistants that have your needs in mind. From the beginning of the case to the end, we have you covered and make sure that you are guided properly. We offer FREE consultation from beginning to end until we win you the case. Once the case is won, we will take our fees that will be agreed to prior to even before we start your case. If your accident was caused by negligence and you suffered personal injury, give our team a call. We can help you.