It can be upsetting enough to get in a car accident in California. However, it can be even more upsetting if you’re in a rental vehicle at the time of the accident.
Damaging your own property is bad enough. However, you may be wondering what to do if you crashed a vehicle belonging to a rental car company. Can the car rental company punish you? Even if you weren’t at fault for your accident?
While you’re calling law enforcement, making sure everyone involved in the crash is safe and dealing with any injuries, you are likely overwhelmed with thoughts about your own insurance company, car rental insurance and what will occur regarding the rental car company. How does rental coverage work? How do you file an insurance claim?
Let us further explore this scenario.
Seven Steps To Take Following A Rental Car Accident
If you are involved in a rental car accident, many of the steps you should take will be the same as after a normal car accident. However, there will be additional complications after rental car accidents regarding things like rental car coverage, the rental contract, liability coverage, etc.
If you’re involved in a rental car accident, you should:
Make Sure You’re Safe
This may sound like common sense. However, you should make sure that you and everyone else in your vehicle are OK before you do anything else. You should check the scene around you as well as any other involved vehicles.
You should safely move your vehicle to the roadside if this is possible.
If the accident is serious, you should immediately call 911 and see a healthcare professional if any injuries have taken place.
Clear the area if there is a possibility of an explosion. And if the accident
Call 911
You should call 911 after your accident. In California, you’re obligated to contact law enforcement if the accident involved any injuries or deaths, or if it involved over $1,000 worth of property damage.
However, you should call 911 regardless. The thing is, it is common for accident victims to not realize they’ve been injured until weeks or even months after an accident.
You should call 911, make sure a police report is written up and ask for a copy of the accident report from the police. If you later discover you’ve been injured, that police report could be vital in terms of a car accident lawyer helping you recover compensation for your injuries.
Document The Accident
You should take the time to gather detailed information regarding the accident. You should write notes that include your account of how the accident occurred, and you should do this immediately since memories can quickly fade. You should also take a lot of photos – more pictures than you think you need.
Take photos of the accident damage, any injuries, and anything else that may be relevant, like roadway conditions, weather, traffic signs and signals, etc. Take photos from multiple angles.
Information that you should document includes:
- How the accident occurred
- The collision’s exact location, including details such as what lane it happened in as well as street names
- The color, model, make and year of any vehicle involved
- Any other details about the involved vehicles that stand out
Exchange Contact Information
Once you determine the accident scene is safe, exchange insurance and contact information with every other involved party. Information you should exchange includes:
- Addresses
- Names
- License plate numbers, vehicle registration and driver’s license numbers
- Insurance companies and policy numbers
- Email addresses and phone numbers
Get the contact information of any witnesses to the accident.
If law enforcement is present, you should be prepared to give them your vehicle registration card, driver’s license, current address and proof of financial responsibility.
When you talk with others at the scene, keep conversation to the bare minimum necessary to exchange information. Do not apologize for the accident or tell anyone you were at fault for the accident. Be polite. Do not make any statements which even imply you may have been partially at fault for the accident. Insurance companies can later use these statements against you.
Wait for law enforcement to arrive before you engage with others if other parties are acting in a hostile manner. It’s best not to argue with anyone at the scene.
Be careful when engaging with others, particularly if the other party’s road rage caused the accident. Don’t sign anything promising to pay for damages or admitting fault. Don’t sign anything if another party offers to pay for your deductible or damages.
Don’t mention you were using a rental car. Some may attempt to take advantage of this and blame you for the accident.
Contact Your Rental Car Company
The previous steps are all things you should do in pretty much any car accident. However, crashes involving rental cars have some additional steps.
You should contact your rental car company as quickly as possible and tell them about the crash. Rental cars often have stickers in the glove box with emergency numbers, or emergency numbers listed on rental car agreements.
Ask your rental car company how you should proceed. They’ll explain things to you such as rental car insurance and they’ll usually want you to fill out an incident report.
Call Your Insurance Provider
If you are relying on your auto insurance to serve as coverage for a rental car after an accident, tell them about the accident to establish a damage claim.
You will want to ask them multiple questions, including:
- Finding out what your deductible is (the part of your losses you need to pay for out of your own pocket)
- If you have comprehensive and collision coverage
- If they’ll file an accident report with law enforcement for you or if you need to do this yourself
Tell your insurance company about the additional insurance that you bought along with the rental.
Figure Out Who Is Liable For The Accident
You need to know what the rental car company may cover, what might be covered by your insurance company and what is covered by your claim. If you rented the car with a credit card which offers coverage for rental cars, this might help cover some damages.
Damage to others: If you have liability coverage, this will usually extend to rental cars. Otherwise, you can typically buy supplemental liability coverage from rental agencies. This will pay for damage you cause to others’ property such as vehicles.
You shouldn’t rely on a credit card for this. While some credit cards offer coverage for rental cars, they usually won’t cover liability. If you don’t have your own auto insurance, it’s usually a good idea to purchase this. If you don’t, you might be responsible for car repair and medical expenses that others incur in the accident.
Collision damage: If your own insurance has comprehensive and collision coverage, this will usually extend to your car rental. If your insurance policy doesn’t cover this, you could consider buying a waiver for collision damage from your car rental company. Otherwise you might have to pay for damages.
Possible extra car rental days: If your policy doesn’t have rental coverage, you might owe the rental car company money for additional days the car isn’t available to them – if the car requires five days of repair, you might have to pay for five extra days of “renting” the car. You can typically avoid this by buying a collision damage waiver or extra insurance from your rental car company.
Primary insurance: This is the insurance which is activated first upon filing a claim. Some policies completely cover accidents when you pay the premium. This means they cover any damage to your car rental as well as the cost of the vehicle you struck.
Secondary coverage: This can cover charges and fees which your primary policy won’t, like reimbursement of your deductible. Even with secondary coverage, you still need to file an insurance claim, and this could lead to your rates going up.
If you weren’t at fault for your accident: You still need to pay a deductible to the car rental company, as the car rental company is entitled to having their vehicle fixed as quickly as possible. It’s then your insurance company who needs to go after the at-faulty party, and this could lead to you getting reimbursed.
What Insurance Options Do I Have After A Rental Car Accident?
If you’re involved in a rental car accident, you may have one or more options available regarding insurance, including:
Your Personal Car Insurance
Most rental cars include their own insurance. However, many personal insurance policies also include coverage for rental accidents.
You should ask your insurer if your own insurance policy covers rental accidents.
Rental Insurance
There are many types of rental insurance which you may be able to utilize, including:
Rental car liability insurance: Rental car liability insurance will pay other parties’ expenses if you are responsible for an accident. You must have this by law in California. Your own insurance company may provide it. If your own insurance company doesn’t provide it, you’ll need to purchase it from the rental car company.
Rental car loss-damage waiver insurance: This optional product waives any financial responsibility you have for damage or loss incurred to your rental, provided you do not violate the terms and conditions of your rental agreement.
Personal accident rental insurance: This insures you and your passengers for accidental death, emergency care and accidental medical costs during your car rental, up to a limit.
Rental car personal effects coverage: This covers any theft or damage of personal belongings that happens during your vehicle rental.
The At-Fault Driver’s Insurance
If another driver is at fault for your rental car accident, their insurance company will be responsible for covering costs related to the accident.
If you have been seriously injured in an accident that was someone else’s fault, their insurance company will probably fight tooth and nail to avoid paying you for your injuries. In this circumstance, it will be wise for you to hire an experienced car accident attorney like the attorneys at Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers to help you recover compensation.
What To Do If You’re Injured In A Rental Accident
If you have been injured in a rental accident and you were at fault for the accident, your insurance company, or the rental insurance policy, should help to cover your costs.
If someone else was at fault for the accident, your medical bills will be covered by their insurance policy. However, you will not receive a fair offer from the at-fault party’s insurance company if you don’t have an experienced personal injury lawyer by your side.
The at-fault party’s insurance company is obligated under California law to pay you for your rental car accident injuries up to policy limits. However, they won’t pay you what you’re entitled to unless you can “enforce” that law by filing a lawsuit over a low ball offer and winning that lawsuit.
They know you can’t win such a lawsuit without a lawyer, so if you don’t have an attorney, they will only offer you a low ball offer, daring you to file a lawsuit over it.
By hiring lawyers with a long track record of success like Jeffrey Nadrich’s, you’re telling the insurance company that you mean business after your rental car accident. You’re sending the message that you can sue them over a low ball offer and win. You’re sending the message it’s in their best financial interest to offer you what you’re entitled to for your injuries instead of wasting legal fees in court only to lose and have to pay you what you’re entitled to anyways.
Studies show that injury victims who hire attorneys receive far more compensation for their injuries than those who don’t hire attorneys, even after taking attorney fees into account.
What If An Unauthorized Driver Caused The Rental Car Accident?
When renting vehicles, you need to list how many people might drive the vehicle. Every additional driver leads the cost of the rental increasing, although sometimes the company will let you add a spouse for free. The contract you sign is an agreement that only those who you list on the form will drive the rental car. If someone unauthorized drives it and gets in an accident, you might end up being liable instead of the rental car company or your insurance company.
Contact Our Legal Team Today
Call us for a free consultation if you or a loved one was injured in a rental car accident which wasn’t your fault.
We have been representing those injured in rental car accidents since 1990. We have recovered more than 0,000,000 for those injured in rental car accidents and other accidents.
We won’t charge anything to represent you in your rental car accident case until and unless we recover compensation for you. You won’t owe us any out-of-pocket fees or upfront fees for us to handle your rental car crash case.
If you can’t afford to have your rental car accident injuries treated, we can get you to doctors who will treat you without charging you until your case is over.
Call us today for a free case evaluation. You may be entitled to compensation for medical bills, lost wages, pain, suffering and more related to your rental car accident injuries.
Jeffrey Nadrich
Jeffrey Nadrich is a nationally-recognized California plaintiff’s personal injury attorney. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley and UC Hastings College of the Law. He has successfully represented thousands of injury clients over the last 40 years.
