What happens if:

[Jon Miller]

A relative is driving your car, gets in a multiple car pileup, and is 'at fault'. I am mostly interested in what happens if the total liabilities are higher than the insurance coverage.

JM

[Jon Miller]

This is mostly for interest sake because from the police report it won't be an issue in my situation.

JM
(Unless someone who was walking around after the accident was really seriously injured.)

[BlackCat]

Que ? I'm not sure I understand the question - doesn't the insurance cover no matter what ?

[Jon Miller]

Insurance covers a certain amount. Which is plenty for older cars, but can be not enough if the cars are new. Also, becomes an issue when there is a multi-car pile up.

Also, medical bills can obviously be extremely high, in which case even 100k might not be enough (assuming that there was a multi car pileup).

You can set your level of insurance in the US, I set mine fairly minimally (I drive quite safe).

JM

[BlackCat]

Ah, the usual US-Euro war

If you mean US, I can't be of any help, but since you are over here, so maybe something for comparison. In DK (and I guess most of EU) you typically have two insurances - one for the car, wich is optional (I have a 12 yo. car, so I can't be bothered to have that, but if I bought a new I would) and the obligatory for damage on other. There are no way to adjust the latter, but it is not that costly ~1000 $.

Edit: Should mention - the price is reduced through no damage years (goes for both types).

[Provost Harrison]

Well that is stupid to have a ceiling on the liability of such an insurance policy when the potential liability can be extremely high with no possibility for the responsible party being able to pay it. Sometimes you Americans get well and truly screwed over...

[Jon Miller]

Yeah, we have insurance for others and insurance for yourself. I only had insurance for others, which is 'OK' because my car didn't cost much and my relative is relatively fine. I am very glad my relative is OK.

The insurance for others has 2 basic parts, property and personal injury. You can set how much coverage, with lower coverage being a lower price per month.

Minimal in OR for a good driver (who isn't in the state) and a cheap car/etc is ~40$ a month.

JM

[BlackCat]

I'm a bit confused - are you saying that you have a special car insurance covering yourself ? Isn't that covered by your ordinary insurances ?

Further confusion - are you responsible for your relatives damages if they are hurt driving your car ?

I have a suspicion that we talk past each other, but not quite sure.

[Jon Miller]

I mean you have insurances for 'others' in an accident, and 'you' in an accident. You really means your vehicle, as I wasn't even in the country.

Maybe. Although most wouldn't hold me liable.

JM

[MikeH]

It sounds like it doesn't work even remotely similar to the UK system.

[Arrian]

Well, most policies have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, depending on the requirements of the state you live in. That is designed to step up into the gap when the at-fault driver's insurance is insufficient (or nonexistent).

-Arrian

[Arrian]

Euros:

We have several types of coverage packaged into auto policies:

1) "Collision" coverage. This covers damage to your vehicle in a collision.
2) "Comprehensive" coverage. This covers other types of damage to your vehicle (theft, for instance).
3) Liability coverage. This covers bodily injury and property damage of others in an accident that is your fault (or partly your fault). It's set up as with "per person" and "per accident" limits. For instance, mine are $250,000/$500,000, which is the highest available on a primary-level auto policy. State law requires a minimum level ($20/$40 or $25/$50 IIRC).
4) Med pay. This provides some $$ for medical expenses of you & your passengers (and maybe others? I don't recall).

*NOTE* it's been years since I worked with auto insurance and I'm probably rusty. This is off memory.

-Arrian

[OzzyKP]

Well that is stupid to have a ceiling on the liability of such an insurance policy when the potential liability can be extremely high with no possibility for the responsible party being able to pay it. Sometimes you Americans get well and truly screwed over...

We get a choice over how much coverage we want. It depends on what we want to pay. If we want less coverage we pay less, and if we want more coverage we pay more. There may be unlimited coverage options, I'm not sure. Like Jon I opt for the cheapest option.

[MikeH]

Well, most policies have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, depending on the requirements of the state you live in. That is designed to step up into the gap when the at-fault driver's insurance is insufficient (or nonexistent).

-Arrian

Generally our policies only cover named drivers for a specific vehicle. Anyone not named on the policy isn't insured so can't drive the car. You can usually phone up and add someone to the policy for a few days for a small extra charge, assuming they aren't massively high risk.

That said, you can get policies that cover you to drive any car or policies that cover any driver for a car. But it's rare.

[Jon Miller]

Well, most policies have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, depending on the requirements of the state you live in. That is designed to step up into the gap when the at-fault driver's insurance is insufficient (or nonexistent).

-Arrian

Oregon actually does have this, but Maryland and Virginia did not.

JM