How to claim: What if I am a passenger in the car that caused the accident?
Can a passenger who is injured in a car accident claim compensation? Yes!!
We recently chatted to somebody who was a passenger in a car that was involved in a car accident in Perth. She did not make a claim because the driver of the car was a good friend, and the friend was the one who had caused the accident. Basically her friend had failed to stop behind a queue of cars and had slammed into the back of a car. The passenger suffered whiplash. The passenger thought that because her friend who was driving was to blame that she, as a passenger, could not claim compensation. That is wrong. She can claim.
To make a claim for compensation for your injuries all that a passenger need to prove is that:
- The car that you were travelling in had Western Australian number plates;
- The accident happened less than 3 years ago;
- That the accident was somebody’s fault: either your driver’s fault or the other car’s driver’s fault; and
- You have been injured.
But what if the driver was a family member or a friend or somebody who is close to you? In those situations passengers are understandably reluctant to make a claim. Passengers somehow think that the insurance company will go after the driver and that the driver will land up paying. That is highly unlikely:
- In the vast majority of claims where a passenger makes a claim, the Third Party Insurance Company (Insurance Commission of Western Australia) contacts the driver to verify the details of the third party insurance and what happened in the accident, and then the Third Party insurance company takes over the management of the claim and there is no further involvement for the driver.
- Only in some cases will the insurance company pay the passenger’s and then try to reclaim the money back from the driver. This can happen in situation where:
- The driver was driving a car that did not have valid Third Party Insurance. In other words, if the rego on the car had not been paid then the Third Party insurance company could possibly try to recover their losses against the negligent driver;
- The driver was intoxicated; or
- The driver did not have a valid driver’s license; or
- The driver had driven the car knowing that there was something wrong with the car that made it unsafe.
The bottom line: if you have been injured in a car accident in Western Australia and you were a passenger, you potentially have a claim. If you have any questions about your claim, feel free to give us a quick call.
