Daughter driving friends car

by Melissa

My daughter was driving her friends car (at her friends'request)when she had an accident.police arrived at the scene, no tickets were issued.

My daughter was taken in an ambulance because her neck hurt. After going through her friends insurance company, her friend wanted her to go through our insurance company - our insurance will not pay anything but cover our daughter's medical while getting checked out in the hospital.

Her friend now is asking for the $500.00 deductible that her ins. co. is asking for and her car cost $4,500.00 for repair. I'm not sure what our obligation is in this matter or what is "right" to do.

My daughter is distraught over the whole thing as her friend is badgering her for the $$ and making her life miserable while away at school. Any advice would be appreciated.

Answer:

Boy, This is interesting. What is the right thing to do v. what is the insurance thing? I will give my opinion on both and let you make a decision.

Insurance follows the car. This is a well accepted doctrine and most insurance companies agree to this rule. What this means on your situation is that the insurance policy that covers that vehicle will have to pay for all damages (medical bills included, unless no personal injury or medical payments coverages are in place).

Your auto policy will provide coverage for the accident, but they will act as secondary insurance, basically paying above and beyond the damages of the vehicle that the first insurance company did not pay. You can ask your insurance company to pay for the difference and see what they say. It is unlikely that they would pay for this, but they could. You lose nothing by asking.

The real crux of the matter is that your daughter is covered under their policy. She is an insured under the policy. This means that technically speaking their insurance company is protecting your daughter. Under the policy, the driver is the insured, and therefore you daughter was covered by them. So, arguably the $4,500 were paid on behalf of your daughter. The deductible is taken of by the same contract that they signed.

This is more complicated that you really want to get into, you know, they believe it is their policy that is paying for this and not yours.

Regarding doing the right thing, well you could pay the $500 and have the peace of mind that your daughter is not going to bother anymore.

However, this sounds like it was a two way street. She loaned the vehicle and I have the feeling this kids are teenagers. By entrusting your car, you are also giving away insurance coverage, perhaps a more grown up thing to know, but when you have a vehicle, you also assume that type of responsibility. Why is she loaning her car? why did she not drive? It is kind of unfair to ask for all the money back when your daughter was doing a nice thing (unless she had an intentional accident).

I hope this helps,

Good Luck,
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