I was a passenger in a car accident. Who pays?

Your first source is Personal Injury Protection, up to $10,000, and it pays whoever caused the crash. Which policy it comes from depends on whether you own a car or live with a relative who does. Anything beyond PIP is a claim against the driver or drivers whose carelessness caused the crash, which can include the friend or relative you were riding with. Each driver owes only their own percentage of the fault, so it matters who the drivers were and whether each had insurance.

01 PIP first

Whose insurance pays a passenger first

Personal Injury Protection comes first, and it does not ask who caused the crash. A Florida auto policy must provide PIP to the named insured, to resident relatives, to people operating the insured car and to “passengers in the motor vehicle,” up to $10,000 in medical and disability benefits (§ 627.736(1)). It pays 80% of reasonable medical expenses and 60% of lost gross income, up to that total.

If you own a car, or live with a relative who does, your own household policy is usually the one that pays. The statute sends a passenger to the insurer of the owner of the car you were riding in only if you do not own a vehicle with required security and you are not entitled to PIP from the insurer of an owner (§ 627.736(4)(e)). A relative who lives in the owner’s household is covered under that same household policy. So a passenger with no car and no policy of their own is paid by the insurer of the car they were in.

The same 14-day rule applies to you. PIP medical benefits are payable only if you receive initial services and care within 14 days of the crash, and where no emergency medical condition is found the limit drops from $10,000 to $2,500. A passenger who felt fine in the car and woke up sore on day three is on the clock from the crash, not from the soreness (what happens if the 14 days pass).

If the owner had no PIP, you still have a route. An owner who is required to carry security and does not has no tort immunity and is personally liable for the PIP benefits (§ 627.733(4)). Tell the other insurers and the owner in writing. Do not wait for them to volunteer it.

PIP asks who you are and which car you were in. It does not ask who caused the crash.

02 The driver

Can a passenger make a claim against the driver?

Yes. A passenger’s claim against a careless driver is an ordinary negligence claim. Florida used to have a guest statute that barred a passenger from recovering for anything less than gross negligence. It was repealed, and a federal appeals court described it that way as long ago as 1972 (Cariglia v. Southeast Chrysler-Plymouth, 459 F.2d 994). There is no section 320.59 in the current statutes. A passenger is not a guest who has to prove recklessness.

The same limit on pain and suffering applies to a passenger’s claim. The tort exemption in § 627.737 covers the owner, the operator and the occupants of an insured vehicle. A passenger can recover damages for pain, suffering, mental anguish and inconvenience only if the injury consists in whole or in part of a significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death (§ 627.737(2)). Medical bills and lost income beyond what PIP pays are not subject to that threshold.

If two drivers caused the crash, the claim runs against both, and each owes only their own share. Florida no longer makes each at-fault party responsible for the whole. Judgment is entered against each party on the basis of that party’s percentage of the fault (§ 768.81(3)). If a jury put 70% on the driver you were riding with and 30% on the other driver, the other driver’s insurer owes 30% of your damages even though it was your own driver who did most of the harm.

In practice the claim is made so that the driver’s liability insurance responds. Most people do not want to sue a friend or a sibling, and the claim does not need to feel like that. The question that settles it is how much coverage there is, and a claimant can ask the insurer to say so in writing. The insurer must provide a sworn statement of the limits, the insureds and any coverage defense within 30 days of a written request (§ 627.4137).

03 Not enough coverage

What if the driver has no insurance, or too little?

Florida does not require bodily injury liability coverage from an ordinary driver, so a driver at fault can have a legal policy that pays nothing toward your injuries. The compulsory law requires PIP and property damage liability (§ 627.733; § 324.022). When that happens, the next places to look are uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, which can come from the policy on the car you were in or from a policy in your own household, and the owner of the car.

The owner of the car can be responsible for the driver’s carelessness. A person who lends a vehicle to a permissive user is liable for its operation up to $100,000 per person and $300,000 per incident for bodily injury, and, if the user is uninsured or carries less than $500,000 in combined coverage, up to an additional $500,000 in economic damages only (§ 324.021(9)(b)3). So a passenger hurt in a borrowed car has a question to ask beyond “who was driving.” It is “who owned it.”

If the car was a rideshare vehicle, a separate set of coverage tiers applies. They depend on whether a ride was underway when the crash happened (§ 627.748), and they are covered with rideshare accidents.

The whole subject of a driver with no coverage has its own article. It covers how to check whether you really have no uninsured motorist coverage, because the statute provides it unless a named insured rejected it in writing on the approved form, and what to do when the driver truly has nothing (the driver has no insurance and I have no UM).

04 What reduces it

What can reduce a passenger’s claim

A passenger is not assigned the driver’s fault, but a passenger can have fault of their own. The law looks at what each person did. A passenger who did nothing wrong has no percentage to reduce a claim against the drivers at fault (how fault percentages work).

The seat belt is the most common argument. Florida requires every passenger under 18 to be restrained, and a passenger 18 or older in the front seat to be restrained (§ 316.614(4), (5)). A violation is not negligence per se and is not considered in mitigation of damages, but it may be considered as evidence of comparative negligence (§ 316.614(10)). In practice a defendant raises it to argue that part of the injury would have been avoided.

Your own impairment can bar the claim only in a narrow case. A plaintiff who was under the influence to the point that normal faculties were impaired, or who had a blood alcohol level of 0.08 or higher, and who as a result was more than 50% at fault for their own harm, recovers nothing (§ 768.36). It turns on the passenger’s own condition and the passenger’s own share of the fault.

If you knew the driver had been drinking, expect that to be asked. It is a question of comparative fault that turns on what you knew and what you could see. It is not settled by the fact of the ride, and it is a question for a lawyer who has the facts in front of them.

05 What to do now

What a passenger should do in the first two weeks

See a doctor within 14 days and say you were a passenger. The PIP claim and the injury claim both begin with a medical record that shows when the pain started and what you reported.

Collect every driver’s name, insurer and policy number, and the vehicle owner’s name. The owner is often not the driver. Both drivers are exchanging information at the scene or through the report, and a passenger is often the one person who is not asked for anything and forgets to ask.

Do not accept a quick payment from the driver’s insurer on the day it is offered. A release closes the claim for good against whoever it names, and sometimes more broadly than the person signing expects. A passenger with a PIP claim and a bodily injury claim has two different pieces to protect (what an early offer is pricing).

Do not post about the crash, the ride or the evening that led up to it. Photographs, messages and posts about where the group was and what it was doing get read by the people evaluating the claim.

07 What to do now

1. Get to a doctor within 14 days and describe the crashTell the first provider you were a passenger, which seat you were in and what hurts. PIP and the injury claim both start from that record.
2. Write down every driver, owner and insurerThe driver and the owner are not always the same person. Get the plate, the insurer and the policy number for each vehicle.
3. Tell the insurers in writing that you were a passenger and that you are claiming PIPSend it to the insurer of the car you were in, and to your own household insurer if you own a car or live with a relative who does. Keep a copy.
4. Do not sign anything from an insurer before you know what else you may claimA release can end a claim against one party, and sometimes more than you intended. Ask what exactly it releases.
5. Write down who else was in the car and who saw the crashOther passengers and independent witnesses are the people who can say how each driver was driving, and they are easier to find in the first week.
6. Stay off social media about the crash and the eveningWhat you post is available to the people who will evaluate the claim.

09 The sources

• Fla. Stat. § 627.736 Personal Injury ProtectionPIP of up to $10,000 for passengers; 80% of reasonable medical expenses within 14 days of care; 60% of lost gross income; subsection (4)(e) says which insurer pays.
• Fla. Stat. § 627.733(4) Owner without required securityAn owner who fails to have the required security has no tort immunity and is personally liable for the PIP benefits.
• Fla. Stat. § 627.737 Tort exemption and the pain-and-suffering thresholdApplies to owners, operators and occupants of an insured vehicle; pain and suffering is recoverable only for the injuries listed in subsection (2).
• Fla. Stat. § 768.81 Comparative faultJudgment is entered against each party on its own percentage of fault; there is no joint and several liability (subsection 3).
• Fla. Stat. § 324.021(9)(b)3 Owner who lends a vehicleLiability up to $100,000 per person and $300,000 per incident for bodily injury, plus up to $500,000 in economic damages if the user is uninsured or carries under $500,000 combined.
• Fla. Stat. § 316.614 Safety belt lawBelts for passengers under 18 and for front-seat passengers; a violation may be evidence of comparative negligence but is not negligence per se (subsection 10).
• Fla. Stat. § 768.36 Alcohol or drug defenseA plaintiff who was impaired and more than 50% at fault for their own harm recovers nothing.
• Fla. Stat. § 627.4137 Disclosure of liability coverageOn written request the insurer must give a sworn statement of limits, insureds and coverage defenses within 30 days.
• Cariglia v. Southeast Chrysler-Plymouth, 459 F.2d 994 (5th Cir. 1972) The repealed guest statuteDescribes former § 320.59, “since repealed,” which barred a guest’s recovery for less than gross negligence.