A rental car, by definition under McKinney law, can be any car that the person driving does not own and did not borrow from someone else. This can include cars that an individual rented from large rental companies such as Hertz, Avis, Alama, or National Rent a Car. It also includes short-term rentals from an automobile dealership.
The legal process following a rental car wreck is different than a typical car collision. If you have been injured in a rental car collision, it may be in your best interest to seek the services of an accomplished lawyer who is knowledgeable about the insurance considerations following McKinney rental car accidents. En Español.
With rental cars, people are driving vehicles that they are not used to handling and they are usually smaller cars too. Because of this, injuries tend to be a bit more severe in rental car accidents than typical car wrecks. Common injuries in rental car accidents include:
The injuries depend upon what happens to the body in an impact. There is not much correlation between the degree of damage to a vehicle and the seriousness of an injury to a person. Very often, what looks like very little damage to a vehicle can leave a person with a devastating injury. The opposite can be true as well, with an accident causing very serious damage to the vehicle leaving a person with minimal injuries.
If an individual is involved in an accident while driving a rental car, there may be an additional layer of complications with insurance. This is why it is important to obtain a lawyer who will know all the different insurance considerations following McKinney rental car accidents. When someone rents a vehicle, they have the option to sign for additional insurance. Those additional insurance policies may be limited to liability only or they may include underinsured or uninsured motorist coverage as well.
An important thing to know about insurance coverage is that under Texas law, an individual’s own automobile insurance covers the driver and their vehicle, and if they choose to rent a car, their policy will follow them. The individual will also have their own personal injury protection as well as their own underinsured or uninsured motorist coverage.
For many people, it is not necessary to get additional coverage whenever they rent a car. One exception may be if the person renting the car does not have any automobile insurance on another vehicle. If an uninsured driver is going to rent a car for a long trip or after flying into another area, they should also take the insurance offered with the rental and make sure they have both underinsured-uninsured motorist coverage and personal injury protection.
As with any accident, many rental car wrecks due to negligence. Most rental car accidents occur at intersections where people are turning left across traffic.
Every accident is different. The liability or non-liability of an insurance company or individual can turn on a single fact. An experienced attorney can look at every fact scenario individually to determine what happened and why. To learn more about how legal counsel could help you with insurance considerations following McKinney rental car accidents, contact a dedicated attorney today.
McCraw Law Group