Anyone’s kid get into car accident while driving someone else’s car?

[charlie,nj]

My genius son barrowed his friends car and got into an accident. It was my son’s fault he was turning left and hit a car that was stopped for a red light. (I think) Both cars were damaged. No one was hurt.

Police said he will have 2 points on his record, but they can be brought down?

Does anyone know what to expect?

Does the friend’s insurance company take care of everything?

Do we pay for repairs? Do we offer to pay for repairs?

Wife is calling our insurance company..

Thanks..

 

[EthansMom]

My understanding...

The friend's insurance should pay for everything except the deductible. Your son (you, if he is a minor) will be responsible for the deductible.

If the friend didn't have insurance and/or there is something not covered, you could be out a lot of $$$.

 

[M5ward]

If the friend's insurance is going to be surcharged, who is going to pay that fee for the next three (I think) years? I would have offered to pay for the damages and bypassed the insurance company entirely if possible. Of course, if there is considerable damage, that could be costly.
As far as the insurance issue goes, NJ is a "no fault" state and each insurance company is supposed to pay for damage to the vehicle of their insured..then the insurance company of the driver who was not at fault usually goes after the insurance company of the at fault driver to recoup their money. Deductibles should absolutely be paid by your son..and, in my opinion, any future surcharge.
If your son's friend has minimal insurance, they could come after your son's insurance when friend's insurance is maxed out.

 

[chisnpeke]

I would at least offer to pay for some of the damage. Even if they decline and insurance pays for all of it, offering to help pay is the right thing to do. No way should you pay for all of the damage since obviously his friend allowed it to happen.

I come from an insurance family and this has been drilled into my brain as a big thing NOT to do!

 

[kellyg403]

In a similar situation about 5 years ago. The car was paid for through the insurance company minus the deductible. Then the insurance company turned around and sued my insurance company for the money back since my son was insured through me. Cost me a great deal...higher premiums and not a great insurance rating. Just be aware this could happen. We are talking over 10,000 in my situation so I am not sure *if* that had anything to do with it but thinking so.

Kelly

 

[charlie,nj]

Thanks for the info..

It just happened today so I don’t know all of the details. I hope the kid had insurance..I didn’t think of that horror aspect of it all. I will ask when I go home.

It has to go via insurance company because the police wrote up a report and the cars had to be towed. It wasn’t much damage but the fender around the wheels was pushed in. The other driver said he wasn’t hurt to the police.

My wife just told me that our insurance company said the friend’s insurance company takes care of everything. Yes we will offer to pay any deductable. I didn’t think of paying his insurance surcharge increase. I will tell wife about that.

We will pay if need be I just wanted to hear what other’s did in this circumstance.

Interesting about the friends insurance company suing to get money back from our insurance company. My son is on our policy, lucky us for 3 month’s now!!! I will give my wife the heads up on that one.

What a FOOL!!! My son has been crying and saying he is sorry over and over to my wife. We have warned him to NOT even get in a car with his friends who have cars let alone drive one!!!. They all just got their drivers licenses a few months ago.!!!!

 

[pixiewings71]

Thanks for the info..

It just happened today so I don’t know all of the details. I hope the kid had insurance..I didn’t think of that horror aspect of it all. I will ask when I go home.

It has to go via insurance company because the police wrote up a report and the cars had to be towed. It wasn’t much damage but the fender around the wheels was pushed in. The other driver said he wasn’t hurt to the police.

My wife just told me that our insurance company said the friend’s insurance company takes care of everything. Yes we will offer to pay any deductable. I didn’t think of paying his insurance surcharge increase. I will tell wife about that.

We will pay if need be I just wanted to hear what other’s did in this circumstance.

Interesting about the friends insurance company suing to get money back from our insurance company. My son is on our policy, lucky us for 3 month’s now!!! I will give my wife the heads up on that one.

What a FOOL!!! My son has been crying and saying he is sorry over and over to my wife. We have warned him to NOT even get in a car with his friends who have cars let alone drive one!!!. They all just got their drivers licenses a few months ago.!!!!

I don't know that I would call him a fool, this was an accident, that's why we have insurance. Don't stress over it too much, I had an accident (my fault, I slammed into someone in traffic, they stopped but no way I could because I was going faster then they were) my insurance paid for any damages to the other parties car, I paid for my deductible and that was it. My premiums did NOT go up at all.....of course the difference there is that I've been driving for years and this was my first accident in at least 15 years (maybe more) but still.........

I hope everything works out well for you.

 

[charlie,nj]

I hope everything works out well for you.

thanks!!

.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

What a FOOL!!! My son has been crying and saying he is sorry over and over to my wife. We have warned him to NOT even get in a car with his friends who have cars let alone drive one!!!. They all just got their drivers licenses a few months ago.!!!!

He coud have just as easily gotten into an accident in a family vehicle with you sitting right next to him.


Cut him *a little* slack. He didn't purpose to nail the car head on or anything.

My husband got into a fender bender in my car when we were in college. It wasn't is fault (he was the front car in a chain reaction).

Crap happens, that is what insurance is for.

A little forgiveness could go a long way especially if most adults are to remember their own driving records.

Personally, I would not pay for their insurance increase--their child is just as much at fault as yours for assuming the risk of permitting an underage driver to drive. I think the deductible is adequate. Any insurance premium increase is their issue.

 

[postage stamp]

When I was in college I was driving my boyfriend's (now husband's) car. I was following him in his car because we were at a wedding at he was returning the rented tables and chairs in a big truck.

Well a person with no license and no insurance hit me at an intersection.

My husband's car was TOTALED and I was lucky to be able to walk away from it My husband's insurance paid for everything, I was going to pay the deductible because I had been driving the car, even though it wasn't my fault, but the man who hit me was ordered my the judge to pay it as part of his punishment.

Moral of the story. Don't get hit by a person with no insurance. GIANT pain.

 

[golfgal]

My understanding...

The friend's insurance should pay for everything except the deductible. Your son (you, if he is a minor) will be responsible for the deductible.

If the friend didn't have insurance and/or there is something not covered, you could be out a lot of $$$.

Technically the kid isn't responsible for any of the damages-legally anyway. The car is what is insured, not the driver. The owner of the car's insurance will carry that accident as a surcharge for 3 or more years. The company will probably go after the OP's insurance company to reclaim damages but they will ding the policy of the car owner too. Permissive user accidents are not looked upon too favorably by insurance companies. This is why you NEVER, EVER, NEVER let someone else drive your car!!!

 

[N.Bailey]

My son really wasn't in an accident, but when he was driving his pap's truck, he hit the bumper of a car parked out back. Damage was minimal and had my son not contacted the owner, it was so small, it wouldn't have been noticed right away, if at all. There was a tiny crack, but you couldn't see it unless you were right on top of it pushing on the bumper to show the tiniest separation.

Her insurance company was Geico. Our company is, State Farm and FIL's insurance carrier is All State.

State Farm said it wasn't our vehicle, it wasn't their responsibility and said to contact FIL's carrier.

We offered to pay all costs ourselves to keep from turning it on on FIL's policy, but Geico told the girl to not accept this type of payment and to make it go thru insurance (for everyone's protection). It didn't make sense to me, but that's what they tell their customers and I'm pretty sure their customers follow their advice.

All State ended up footing the entire bill (though it really wasn't much). FIL was angry and still is at my son (he had no damage), but what can you do?

We were told that we'd have to pay the deductible, but in all honesty, we never paid anything, so I'm not sure how that all played out. The girl did initially try to say my son did some damage on the back quarter panel (she had a scratch there), but when she realized we'd fight that, she immediately withdrew any claim to her prior damages. Had it been out of pocket, we might have even helped her getting that repaired since the paint would have had to be purchased anyway, but when we were forced to turn it in, our attitude changed a lot and we were only willing to fix the damage my son caused.

 

[charlie,nj]

No news on this but we did just receive a phone message from his friends insurance company. The guy wanted to know if we would give permission to have my son (17yo) recorded while he describes the accident.

Is this normal procedure? Can we ask them to just send a form that my son could fill out describing the accident?

We want him to describe the accident but he is not good on the phone and wondering if insurance guy may make him say things he otherwise wouldn’t say. He has nothing to hide, but recording it makes us nervous.



.

 

[mmackeymouse]

I would at least offer to pay for some of the damage. Even if they decline and insurance pays for all of it, offering to help pay is the right thing to do. No way should you pay for all of the damage since obviously his friend allowed it to happen.

I don't mean to undermine your expertise, as the only experience I have comes from watching court shows.

But, according to the cases I have seen on Judge Judy, Peoples Court, etc, whoever was in the driver's seat was 100% responsible for the damage, even if the owner of the car let them drive.

The only time I have ever seen it deviate from that is if A) it was not the driver's fault. Then, the judge usually instructs them to go after the at-fault driver. and B) If the car's owner is in some way impaired (IE drunk) and the driver was sober and HAD to drive to get anywhere. Sometimes, in those cases, the judges may split it 50/50.

So, I always got the impression that under the law, that if you are driving someone else's car, and something happens, that you are fully responsible for what insurance does not cover (and a lot of the time, they won't cover anything, if they are aware it was not the insured party driving).

 

[barkley]

just as a head's up-

i was the driver hit in a situation like this. the parent's (owners) of the car that hit me did'nt want their insurance to go up so they told their insurance company that they did'nt give the other teen permission to drive (and their teen did not have the legal right to give permission) so that company denied the claim (my insurance company said the parents of the teen driver were lucky that the other insurer did'nt require the owner's to at least file auto theft charges but they had seen it happen before). the driver's insurance would'nt cover it because they insure the car/not the driver (and the driver's parents did'nt own the offending car).

my insurance ended up covering it under my uninsured motorist coverage-had i not had that i was told i would have had to sue the teen/parents of teen who was driving the car.

depending on the amount of damage and if there's the potential for medical claims you might not want your son to talk to the insurance company without consulting an attorney.

 

[KAMKIM]

Maybe it's different here in NY but as an insured driver I am insured no matter whose car I am driving....that means my insurance would pay for damages to both cars (even if one wasn't mine) and my premiums would go up.

 

[barkley]

Maybe it's different here in NY but as an insured driver I am insured no matter whose car I am driving....that means my insurance would pay for damages to both cars (even if one wasn't mine) and my premiums would go up.

with ours it's the vehical that's insured, but we have a rider that covers us for any vehical we drive (the premium for an entire year is much less than even what the rental car companies or budget trucks charges for 2 or 3 days so it saves us in the long run). we do have a provision in our policy though that restricts drivers under a certain age from driving our vehicals (we can change it if we choose once dd becomes licensed).

 

[KAMKIM]

with ours it's the vehical that's insured, but we have a rider that covers us for any vehical we drive (the premium for an entire year is much less than even what the rental car companies or budget trucks charges for 2 or 3 days so it saves us in the long run). we do have a provision in our policy though that restricts drivers under a certain age from driving our vehicals (we can change it if we choose once dd becomes licensed).

Oh I didn't think of that, I have never had an underaged driver in my truck so it could be that this applies to most policies.

 

[Disnydad]

Maybe it's different here in NY but as an insured driver I am insured no matter whose car I am driving....that means my insurance would pay for damages to both cars (even if one wasn't mine) and my premiums would go up.

Not so!

 

[RitaZ.]

No news on this but we did just receive a phone message from his friends insurance company. The guy wanted to know if we would give permission to have my son (17yo) recorded while he describes the accident.

Is this normal procedure? Can we ask them to just send a form that my son could fill out describing the accident?

We want him to describe the accident but he is not good on the phone and wondering if insurance guy may make him say things he otherwise wouldn’t say. He has nothing to hide, but recording it makes us nervous.



.

That's normal procedure. They are asking for your permission because he is a minor.

I was in an accident some years back when a boy ran into my van with his bike. Even though I wasn't at fault, I reported the accident to my insurance company and did the interview over the phone (it was recorded). One of the things that they will ask is if your son was on his cell phone when the accident happened or shortly before it happened. I remember being told that the insurance company will request cell phone records in case of litigation. My point is, he should be honest in his answer. The insurance company wants a detailed account of what happened. I don't believe any of the questions were misleading.