Accident in a Borrowed or Rental Car in Pennsylvania: Whose Insurance Pays?
Crashes in a borrowed or rental car raise a simple question with a layered answer: whose insurance pays? In Pennsylvania, it depends on what's being paid for — the other people's injuries, your own medical bills, or the car.
Liability: insurance usually follows the car
If you borrowed a car with the owner's permission and caused a crash, the owner's liability insurance is generally the first to pay other people's injury and damage claims. Your own auto policy may then provide additional coverage if the owner's limits run out. If you drove without permission, coverage can be denied.
Your own medical bills
Pennsylvania has a priority order for first-party medical benefits. If you have your own auto policy, it generally pays your medical bills first — even when you were driving someone else's car. If you don't have your own policy, a policy in your household may apply, and then the policy on the car you were in. See Who Pays My Medical Bills After a Car Accident?
Rental cars
Federal law generally protects rental companies from being held responsible just because they own the car. The claim is usually against the driver who caused the crash.
Rental companies provide only limited liability coverage in many cases. Your personal auto policy, or the coverage you bought at the counter, often matters most.
Some credit cards cover rental car damage, but usually not injuries or liability.
Driving a rental for work? Your employer's coverage may apply — see Hurt at Work in Pennsylvania.
If someone else hit you
If the other driver caused the crash, your claim is against that driver's insurer, whether you were in your car, a friend's, or a rental. If they're uninsured, the uninsured motorist coverage on the car you were in — or your own — may apply. See What If the Other Driver Was Uninsured or Underinsured?
Which tort option applies?
Your own tort election usually controls, even in someone else's car. Read Limited Tort vs. Full Tort.
Rideshare and delivery drivers using their own cars have their own rules — see Uber, Lyft and Delivery Driver Accidents.
Talk it through with someone local. If you have questions about your own situation, the attorneys at Joyce, Carmody & Moran can review what happened and explain your options. Request a free consultation.
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