A guy dies accidentally in your car, are you personally liable for death benefits that exceed the insurance?

Question

If a person dies accidentally in your car, can you be held personally liable for death benefits that exceed your policies limits?

Answer 1

"Death benefits"?  You mean liability.  How exactly did this person die "accidentally"?  You can be sued, absolutely.

Answer 2

depends on how come they died, if you were the cause for the accident then yes you can be personally sued by his family for wrongful death. if not then i wouldn't worry about it. it is an awful thing though to have some one die in your car at no fault of your own.

Answer 3

well, they can not get water from a rock, so if it was an accident, and not negligence, probably not.  it is bad form to affix 100% blame in the case of an accident.

Answer 4

Depends on what caused him to die.

If you are sitting in the car listening to music and he drops dead of a heart attack. You are not liable. You did not do anything wrong to cause his death.

If he is a passenger in your vehicle and you pull out from a stop sign into the path of another vehicle and he dies as a result of the injuries received in the accident.....then yes, you are liable. If the value of the claim exceeds your policy limits, you can be held personally responsible for that as well.

That's why it is important to carry sufficient limits. Many states minimum liability limits are not sufficient enough. If you can afford it, I recommend carrying 100/300/100.

Answer 5

Yes, if your negligence was the cause of his death you could be held liable.

If his death was not caused by or contributed to by your negligence then the answer is no.

Answer 6

Maybe!  If your policy is paying out under LIABILITY, then almost certainly.  If it's paying out under medical payments, then it depends on the circumstances of the death.

OH, and unless you have "funeral costs" or "accidental death" or some such built into your policy, there are no automatic death benefits.