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

[JerseyJanice]

Funny, I just walked the dog and noticed my neighbor's car has a big dent in it. I had a hassle with the same neighbors a few years ago over a dent they believed I caused. I swear this family parks their cars in ways where they're hoping to get hit, and it aggravates me that they never seem to get parking tickets.

Anyway, I just want to say that trying to settle things without involving my insurance company has never worked out for me personally. The few fender benders I've had have been with people who wanted the shirt off my back for their damages.

That's what is good about the insurance companies handling it. The insurance won't put up with demands to pay for the rental of a fancy sports car that they claim to need for their job to impress their clients while their ancient Saab gets fixed. The insurance company doesn't care either if the damaged car has a special, super-duper "retractable bummer" that no one else alive has ever heard of, let alone purchased for their vehicle.

Oh, but one other thing--what's with the scary avatar, Charlie? That clown is going to give me nightmares!

 

[BelleWDW]

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..

Durn right ! We did NOT call insurance company-DS's sfriend wrecked his car -and was i upset!

The kids father was a lawyer and dragged the case so much it was dropped-so I dont know how it affected his son's record-it was a "screwy " double turn lane-that has later been fixed -so it WAS partially the city's fault-according to attorney Dad.


BUT-immediately the father offered to pay for the repairs himself so it didnt go thru either of our insurances-he knew of a repair place that did awesome work less expensicely-I thing the repairs came to around $2000!!!

 

[ZachnElli]

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.



.

This is normal procedure. I was the third car in a 3 car accident and I had to be recorded 3 times. I wasn't at fault at all (thought I'd be a witness until one of the cars lost control and hit me!) so I had no problem giving a recorded account of the accident 3 times.

 

[pixiewings71]

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.



.

Yes, this is normal, I've had to do this for every accident I've ever been involved in, whether it was my fault, the other drivers' or I was just a witness or passenger.

 

[bumbershoot]

Years ago in HS, one guy drove another guy's car. Wrapped it around a tree.

The driving friend's family was sued by the car owning family's insurance company. These guys had been friends since we were all in elementary school, and it was VERY hard on the families.

 

[Motherofboys]

As an attorney and a big worrier, this is one of my worst nightmares!! Sure it all seems fine now, but what about when the other driver starts having headaches and neck pain?

Seriously, my kids are all far from driving age but I have told them time and time again that they do not drive other people's cars, they don't let others drive their car, and they don't have friends ride with them. Period.

I know it seems harsh, but I could show you personal injury cases and wrongful death suits that would scare any kid straight. At the end of the day who does it all come back to when the kid is a minor? The parents, it's their assets on the line.

Something else to consider, my insurance policy just changed with our last renewal. They included a new policy change that if an unrelated driver is using our vehicles and gets into an accident - it will void our policy

I don't think you son was being a fool....a clown maybe.

Sorry, couldn't resist

 

[chisnpeke]

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).

Oh I have no expertise. My mom's dad owned his own insurance agency so she learned everything not to do. That has been passed along to me.

I don't know how things go legally (I've seen cases on Judge Judy like this and know that the driver is usually always responsible) but morally I don't think that the OP's son should have to pay for all of the accident because his friend did allow him to drive the car. That's all.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

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..

This usually means that if your son shows up in front of the judge (instead of just paying the fine), the points and/or fine will be lessened. In my experience (two speeding tickets that I showed up for about 10 years apart) the judge said I would only lose 2 points, but he would "let me" pay the entire fine. (down here in the south you start out with 12 points, and "lose" them for violations. So I didn't lose 4 points for speeding, only 2 for showing up and pleading guilty).

 

[IDoDis]

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.!!!!

Of course your insurance company is going to say that. They certainly aren't going to offer to pay. Be prepared though for the other insurance company to recoup the money from your insurance company and then your son's rates will be sky high. It's expensive enough to insure male teens, so I'm sorry this happened. Mistakes happen. Think how much worse things could have turned out.

 

[golfgal]

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.

That is not true for ANY state-the federal standard ISO contract insures your CAR not your driver. You are covered for rental cars because that is included in the standard ISO policy as well. You can drive any car you want but if you get into an accident the insurance policy that covers that car will pay out, not your policy.

 

[disney1990]

Several years ago, my DD was driving her boyfriend's car. She was 20 at the time. She had an accident in his vehicle. Because she was only 20, his policy did not cover her driving his car and it defaulted to our insurance company.

 

[golfgal]

Several years ago, my DD was driving her boyfriend's car. She was 20 at the time. She had an accident in his vehicle. Because she was only 20, his policy did not cover her driving his car and it defaulted to our insurance company.

What does being 20 have to do with it? Are you sure the boyfriend HAD insurance? Something is missing here.

 

[disneymarie]

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.



.

I am employed to do this now, sometimes the person refuses to go on the record, but allow us to ask questions and write the answers.
Typically if there is a claim you are under obligation to particpate, especially if there is damage and the damage to be repaired.
If there is suborgation, the owners company can come after your son to pay.

If he is under 18 I would tell the man you would want to be there. Just tell your son to explain what he saw, heard, and what injuries if any. Sometimes they turn up day or two later.

Good luck, and hope the officer does not give a ticket. That is the points,
Hope he learned a lesson.
Di