A know it all friend of mine told me if I teach someone with a valid learners permit to drive a car, and an accident happens I am responsible. I belive this person is wrong and would like help finding something I can show her. This is my reasoning
Person A is driving under a permit
Person B lends Person A their car knowing that Person A has a permit
Person C (myself) instructs Person A who is doing the driving
If an accident happens person B’s insurance pays any damages and Person A is the one considered responsible. Does anyone know if in New Jersey the way I am pictuing it is the right way?
Insurance will only pay for damages done if the person who’s driving is covered under the insurance. There’s different options with insurance, such as covering anyone who drives, but I think that makes the insurance even more expensive and most people don’t opt for that. So if the person with the permit is driving the car and they’re not covered under the owner’s insurance, any accident they cause is not covered under the insurance. Also, the owner of the car may be liable, perhaps even the driver’s parents (considering they’re too young for a license)
I’m not an insurance agent or lawyer; if this situation is a real possibility I’d double-check with the insurance carrier first. I think Manny’s scenario is correct. Personally, I wouldn’t lend out my car for that purpose. Let the new driver-to-be borrow his own parents’ car or pay for a driving school.
These issues undoubtedly differ from state to state. I think here in NJ there is no option of covering one driver or another. What’s required is liability insurance on the car you own. If you lend it to someone who then has an accident, you would be covered for any damage they did to someone else’s property. And your rates would probably then go up. Possibly WAY up depending on what your record is and other factors.
When you buy insurance they do ask you who lives in your household and who you expect to be driving the car, but this is for purposes of establishing the rate. (Of course, if it turns out that you are lending someone else the car every day to drive to work and you didn’t tell the insurance co. about it, that would be fraud and you would have additional problems.)
Collision, which covers your own damage to your own car, is a separate issue. You don’t have to carry it here, but if you do, I think the same rules would apply.
Any motor vehicle offenses I believe would logically be charged against the person behind the wheel, whose own insurance rates when he went to register his first car would probably be astronomical as a result of his already having points on his record.
Of course, if the accident is caused by somebody else, then that person’s insurance is supposed to cover the damage. If he is uninsured or underinsured, and you don’t have coverage for that, you are S.O.L.