If you drive a vehicle for work, then you might take a coworker or even a client along with you. When you do, they will face as many safety hazards as the driver. If a wreck occurs, then passengers in your vehicles, not to mention passengers in other vehicles, might get hurt. If they do, then they might need insurance to help them with their medical costs. How can your commercial auto insurance policy help them out?
Commercial Auto Insurance And Injuries
A commercial auto insurance policy insures vehicles used for businesses or owned by businesses. It might extend to company-owned vehicles, commercial fleets or personal vehicles used for business. Policies include special coverage to adequately protect the risks that business vehicles face. Commercial vehicles might have accidents as easily as any personal car. When these accidents involve multiple people, then they might involve multiple injuries, too.
The good news is that most commercial auto policies offer help for injured parties. However, you need to make sure your policy includes the right coverage. It might not automatically come with a basic policy. Depending on the injured person's relationship to the insured business, different types of coverage might pay.
Company Passenger Injuries
If a company driver or one of their passengers gets hurt in an accident, then your own commercial auto policy might pay. The policy might offer several incentives:
- Medical Payments Coverage pays for the medical bills of those injured in the wreck.
- Personal Injury Protection (PIP) pays medical bills. But it can also extend to other losses and expenses. These might include things like childcare costs, lost income or related expenses the injured person incurs. The policy might also pay death benefits, in the event someone gets killed in the wreck.
- Some policies even offer coverage for pets that travel with commercial drivers. So, if you travel long distances with a furry companion, then your policy might help them out if they get hurt.
Depending on the state where you register the vehicle, you might have to carry either Medical Payments or PIP coverage. However, even if you don't have to have this protection, it is still a benefit to carry it.
Keep in mind, if an employee gets hurt while riding in a company vehicle, then they might qualify for workers compensation coverage. Injuries sustained in company vehicles might fall in the regular scope of employment. Therefore, workers compensation coverage can help them with replacement income in their recovery. That person might still be able to file against medical payments or PIP coverage, however.
If you transport passengers regularly, such as through a shuttle service, then your Medical Payments or PIP coverage might still pay for those passengers' injuries. Depending on the size of the vehicle or the number of passengers you carry, you might have a requirement to buy high levels of coverage.
Third-Party Drivers and Passenger Injuries
Suppose that instead of injuring a person in your vehicle, an accident injures the passengers in another vehicle. The Medical Payments coverage of your policy won't apply.
Instead, your Bodily Injury Liability Insurance might be the solution. Liability coverage applies to other parties' injuries or property damage when the insured commercial driver is at-fault for the accident. So, if your driver causes the wreck, then this coverage can pay affected third parties.
Conversely, if the accident is another driver's fault, then injured parties in your vehicle might be able to file against that driver's liability insurance. Still, if that driver does not have insurance, then check your own policy to see if it has Uninsured Motorist Coverage. The policy will pay for the costs the other person's policy would have covered if they had it.
Never hesitate to contact your Auto Insurance Discounters agent and ask them where you might need extra medical protection. They can help you find benefits that you might not realize you need.
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