Despite the financial and medical risks people incur when they travel in motor vehicles, few people really consider the liability they have when they offer a friend or loved one a ride. The most common concern about motor vehicle liability most people experience is worrying about what kind of expenses you incur if you crash into someone else’s car or otherwise cause an accident that hurts people or results and expensive property damage.
It is also possible, it’s slightly less common, for you to get into a one-car accident that leaves your passenger injured, which means that every time you drive someone else in your vehicle, you have the potential for financial liability. An example of a scenario where you have sole liability for a passenger’s injuries could be losing control of the vehicle on the slippery road and striking a tree or power line pole.
If your passengers sustained injuries in a crash you caused, you could potentially have liability for the financial losses they suffer, just like you would have liability if you caused the crash that hurt someone in another vehicle. Do you have protection from that liability under the insurance policy you carry?
Minnesota has a no-fault insurance program that includes personal injury protection
No-fault insurance is, in many ways, safer for drivers than standard liability insurance. With standard liability insurance, you only have protection if the other driver has insurance or you have uninsured driver protection in your policy.
No-fault insurance protects drivers from any losses they suffer if they get into a crash, including property damage and medical costs. As the name implies, no-fault insurance covers you regardless of who causes the crash. In other words, you are no longer dependent on the insurance someone else carries. Instead, your own policy protects you and the people in your vehicle.
Even if you have the lowest amount of coverage permissible by law, that means that you will have $20,000 worth of protection for someone suffering injuries in the crash and another $20,000 of protection for other costs. Filing an insurance claim is often the most straightforward way to cover the medical cost someone incurs in a crash.