His son, C, a freshman in college, has been dating a girl, M, for over 2 years. She’s still in high school. Since she’s gotten her driver’s license, she’s racked up no fewer than 5 traffic tickets, so her insurance rates are already high. Since her parents started giving her a hard time re the tickets, she’s asked C to drive when they go out. (He has a beater car and hers is much nicer.) I have no idea if the parents were aware that he’s been driving.)
One night, C was driving, hit a patch of black ice and wrecked the car. No one was injured, thank goodness. $3000 in damages.
Now, the girlfriend’s parents are asking C’s parents to fork over the $3k because their son wrecked the car. They both have insurance, but M’s parents don’t want to submit it through their insurance because M’s rates either go up further, or they might even cancel her insurance altogether.
If you were C’s parents, what would your response be? (If it matters, the parents are on friendly terms.)
If Owner and Driver were both mutually ignorant of insurance requirement (that any regular driver should be on the policy), they should go 50/50 and learn from this experience and ensure that Driver is put on the insurance from this point forward.
If either of them were aware of the rules relating to insurance, and did it anyway, then that person effectively chose to wear the potential financial hit IMHO - but having said that, given their age and presumed financial status (‘pitiful’) I’d still say both parties should go 50/50 and call it a learning experience.
Whether they agree to pay $1500 each and forego putting it through insurance is really up to the financial flexibility of both parties. Without knowing how well off they are, I have no opinion on this one.
EDIT: Well, okay, I have ONE strong opinion: that anyone who owns or drives a car should be responsible for whatever happens to it, and the parents shouldn’t even be involved in the process. I was responsible for my own car payments and insurance, and while my folks would have certainly had opinions about how I approached something like this, ultimately it would have been my responsibility. I suspect Owner has all her bills paid by her folks, given the number of tickets: as a general rule, you don’t drive like an ass when it’s your own money on the line.
Regardless of who’s insurance it gets submitted too, if it were my kid driving, I’d foot the bill, period, I’m not even sure why it would be a question. It’s no different then someone else hitting your car with theirs (ie a regular car accident) and expecting you to pay for it yourself.
As for the insurance, I’m not sure how that would work. It’s my understanding, and possibly incorrect understanding, that (at least in Wisconsin) you insure the car, not the driver. So, no matter who is driving MY car, it’s covered. Now, if someone other than me is driving my car and gets into an accident, they may be able to have their own insurance cover it, I’m not sure, but I’m sure their insurance would do whatever they could to recover the money from my company. But I would sure as hell expect my friend to pay for it.
If everyone is on friendly terms, I’d say the boyfriend’s parents should either just pony up the 3K if that’ll make everyone happy and make this all go away OR, if they can’t afford the 3K, submit it to their own insurance and see what happens. Girlfriend should not have to pay any of it, that wouldn’t be fair. But keep in mind, once his company hears about hers may too.
He is the one that wrecked the car in a single vehicle accident so it is solely his fault. It is his responsibility full stop (no pun intended). I understand that there is such a thing as black ice but it is the driver’s responsibility to either avoid it or drive slowly enough so that it isn’t a threat. Young drivers often don’t do that but he will learn from it. His parents should be thankful that they both didn’t end up killed like so often happens.
If C was driving and got in a wreck, one way or another it’s C’s responsibility. That responsibility may or may not devolve onto his parents, depending on what sort of financial relationship they have.
So if you and I are out together and I say ‘hey, nice car, can I drive it!’ and you let me and I smash it into a light pole and to $3000 worth of damage, you’ll be totally cool if I just pay the extra $15 dollars a month that the premium goes up (until it goes back down)?
As I write that, I assume you also mean covering the deductible.
That isn’t necessarily an option though. Car insurance varies from state to state and even by specific policy. Car insurance sometimes follows the driver and other times the vehicle but different provisions apply to each of those. Generally, the at fault driver (clearly the boyfriend in this case) has to file a claim with their own insurance company to handle the matter. It wasn’t mentioned if he got any citations because of it but that matters too. The girlfriend’s family policy may have a provision on their own policy that pays for the vehicle damage in the event that no other party will pay but that shouldn’t be the default.
The realistic and responsible answer is for the boyfriend to call his insurance company and let them tell him the best way to deal with it based on his policy. The girlfriend’s family shouldn’t have anything to do with it until his family figures out a way to make payment. After all, he just wrecked their car and put their daughter in danger. This isn’t the time to nickle and dime a deal.
This. How is this even a question? He was driving, he wrecked the car. He could have said no, drive your own car. At the bare minimum, he should be coughing up the deductable. Any other thing is ducking responsibility.
He was driving her around, in her car, at her request? Sounds like her liability.
I’d have a much easier time asking him to pay if he asked to borrow the car to run his own errands. I wouldn’t actually expect him (or his parents) to pay it though. That’s what happens when you lend things out.
I’m in for split it. Just pay for the repairs out of pocket and be done. Then guilt both kids for the rest of their natural lives. Mutual agreement, mutual benefit and all that other stuff.
No, no, and more no. There is absolutely no way that she has any responsibility over this. He was the driver and agreed to it. The driver has to assume total command of the vehicle otherwise he isn’t qualified to have a driver’s license. It doesn’t matter who technically owns the car. He wrecked a vehicle that he was in sole control of in a single vehicle accident. That is all you need to know in cases like this although the insurance itself may be a little more complicated but it is still his responsibility.
Further complications are that he is in college and she is in high school. I am making the presumption that he is a legal adult and she is not. However, that shouldn’t matter even if they were both 50 years old. If you agree to drive a vehicle as a licensed driver, you alone are responsible if you get into an accident with no other mitigating factors (black ice or poor road conditions don’t qualify).
Do you really think that if he got a speeding or reckless driving ticket she should be responsible for that too?
I agree with Shagnasty. The driver should go through HIS insurance. Anything they won’t cover should be paid by him. I don’t think the girl’s PARENTS should be on the hook.
As a matter of law and insurance policy, certainly. That’s why any attempt by her parents to put the whole thing on him and his parents, under the table, is an absolute non-starter.
On the other hand, he took the keys, he got behind the wheel–he accepted the responsibility for that night.
I think that’s incorrect. Morally speaking, I can see the girlfriend accepting some responsibility. Morality and law often diverge. This is really a problem of the OPs phraseology. The OP’s title asks about the ethical, but his question implies he’s asking about legality.
I find myself a little less concerned for the daughter and her parents - they are in this situation because she had five wrecks already! This wouldn’t be an issue if she had been a safer driver.
Furthermore, his wreck was ice related, which is closer to being non-fault (though it still is his fault) than most situations. I find it unreasonable he gets slammed with a $3000 bill which would be a simple deductible for anyone else not dating someone who has already had five accidents.
Clearly the moral of the story is he should drive his own car, and leave it at that.
Personal experience - friend borrowed my car, minor ding in parking lot, my insurance went up. Insurance follows car in Maryland. That is the risk involved with loaning a car to a friend.
Yeah, this. In this country (with some very rare exceptions) insurance follows the car, not the driver. If you’re not prepared to make a claim or pay for the damages yourself, you shouldn’t let someone drive your car. You can say whatever you want with your own personal moral code or whatever, but that’s just how it works in this country.
If the kid that wrecked the car is 18 or over (and he’s in college so I suspect he is) it is between the girlfriend’s parents and the adult boy that wrecked the car. Why should his parents even be involved? Parents are not directly responsible for their adult children’s mistakes. Let the girlfriend’s parents try to squeeze money out of his bank account (or absence thereof).