Can I get a rental car by myself now and ask for reimbursement later?

[jonkaro]

A left-turn car caused an accident last Friday, 6 days ago. The left-turn car hit a fast-lane car and push it to the slow lane which I was driving. My car was damaged and towed in this accident. The left-turn car was insured by 2 insurance companies. LibertyMutual (L) is one of the two insurance companies. It looks like L will take the liability. Somehow L still not give me the rental car request. We have three working people here. We only have one car since then. We cannot stand this anymore. Can I get a rental car by myself now and ask L to reimburse me later if L takes the liability for this accident?

 

[trustinggod]

@jonkaro The danger here is that multiple cars are involved. Do you know the drivers policy limits? Because if their policy limits aren't high enough to cover everyone's damages you may not be reimbursed by liberty mutual. If you have collision and rental coverage you should use your own insurance.

 

[jonkaro]

@trustinggod Thank you for your important points. There are three cars involved. If the limit is reached, what will happen to the excess parts? For example, if the left-turn car's limit is $50000, the fast-lane car needs a total of $45000 compensation, and my car needs a total of $20000 compensation. There is a $15000 excessive. The driver will pay the $15000? if the driver doesn't want to pay, go to court? It looks like insurance is not a simple thing.

 

[mlshelton1975]

@jonkaro When total damages between all 3 claimants goes above the at fault drivers limits, the "pot of money", the limits, is divided between the 3 claimants according to each one's amount of damage. No one gets fully compensated since there's not enough money to go around.

 

[jonkaro]

@trustinggod I heard that the car is operated as a Uber car at that moment. Google tells me the Uber's insurance policy is this:

You're insured for liability to a third party if you're in a covered accident where you're at fault and you're online but haven't received a trip request yet. Coverage is at least $50,000 in injury liability per person, $100,000 in total liability per accident, and $25,000 in property damage liability per accident.

So the auto damage policy limit is $100,000? This should be enough for this accident I think. My car is a Toyota Camry. Another car is a Toyota SUV.

 

[resjudicata]

@jonkaro 50k per person for injuries up to 100k for the entire claim. 25k for the entire claim for property damage. So 25k.

 

[trustinggod]

@jonkaro No $25k is the total limit for the damages for all 3 vehicles involved. So I would not rent a car with the expectation of being reimbursed.

 

[jonkaro]

@trustinggod Wow. It is too low. It even cannot total a good car.

I know the faulty driver has two insurances, one for personal use (GEIGO) and one for business (LibertyMutual). If the business insurance limit is excessed. Should he use GEIGO to cover the rest?

 

[letgod]

@jonkaro If he was driving for UBER GEICO won’t be covering a penny.

 

[jonkaro]

@trustinggod I am sorry I read Google results wrong. The actual Uber insurance policy is here: https://www.uber.com/us/en/drive/insurance/

It says this:

• En route to pick up riders and during trips

Uber maintains the following auto insurance on your behalf in case of a covered accident:

- $1,000,000 third-party liability

- Uninsured/underinsured motorist bodily injury and/or first-party injury insurance²

- Contingent comprehensive and collision³

-- Up to actual cash value of car with a $2,500 deductible

There is no serious personal injury in this accident. So the max limit is about $1M? There should be enough funds to cover our losses, right?