Passenger In A Car Accident? You Have The Right To Compensation

If you are a passenger in a vehicle, and you are injured in an accident, you’re in a unique situation. As a passenger, your injury case may be a little different than it would have been if, say, you were one of the drivers involved in the accident.

Insurance Coverage

If you were injured as a passenger, your first avenue would be to get medical attention the way that you normally would. If you have Medpay insurance coverage, it will help you pay for your medical bills, but you can also use your own health insurance.

You can, of course, also make a claim on the liability insurance of either the driver of your car, or the driver of the other car, or both, depending on who was responsible for the accident, but those policies may not cover you at first, if they deny that their insured driver was at fault for the accident.

A Number of Liable Parties

As a passenger, you are in a better position than the drivers of the vehicles, because it doesn’t matter who was liable for causing the accident, the driver of the vehicle you were in or the other driver.

In fact, if both of those drivers think the other one caused the accident, you can make a claim against both drivers’ insurances, and let them figure out who is at fault and thus, who will compensate you. In this scenario, if both drivers had some fault, a passenger may be able to tap into the insurance coverage of both drivers, thus providing a larger amount of available insurance money to compensate the victim.

Even if there was no second driver, such as if the vehicle the passenger was in simply drove off the road, while the driver may not have an avenue to make a claim, the passenger could make a claim against the driver’s insurance for compensation.

You can make a claim on the driver of your vehicle’s policy, or the other driver’s insurance to help compensate you for your injuries, although because we’re often in vehicles of friend or family, that may mean making a claim on a family members or friend’s insurance, something you may not want to, but may have to do.

No Comparative Negligence Problems

Rarely are passengers blamed for contributing or causing the accident, so you also don’t have to worry about a jury blaming you for the accident or your own injuries. There are only limited situations where a passenger might get blamed, such as if they knowingly got into a vehicle with an impaired driver, or if the passenger didn’t have a seat belt on.

Using Your UM COverage

Just like a driver, a passenger can also make a claim on the passenger’s own uninsured motorist (UM) coverage, in the event that one or both drivers that caused the accident had insufficient insurance.

Passenger in a car accident? Contact our Rhode Island car accident injury lawyers at Robert E. Craven & Associates at 401-453-2700 for help.

Source:

law.justia.com/codes/rhode-island/title-27/chapter-27-7/section-27-7-2-1/