RelayRides Accident Raises Questions about the obligations of car sharing

You define and display the price on the company's Web site and handles company that background checks on tenants, them reserves and to collect money. It and similar-to-peer-carpool companies, keep part of the money before the rest to you.

Careful car owner would be worried about the implications of liability here and RelayRides provides 1 million of it to the owner of the car. The company, as your own insurance company may not cover damage that occurs when you are essentially running a business by renting your car. In effect, USAA and Allstate said last month that they were distressed enough by the movement of sharing of personal car that they could refuse to renew policies if they learned that customers put their vehicles in a car-sharing pool.

In response, a spokesman for RelayRides said in March that the company had operated in Massachusetts, where the company began, "no problem" to people losing their insurance.

Here's what RelayRides did not say, however, on a much larger insurance problem, he already had on her hands: a little more than a month before he sent me this statement, a tenant of RelayRides crashed on another car and died at the scene. Four young adults in the car that was hit all injured poorly (not multiple fractures of the face, no use of hands for weeks, hip injured) that their claims could exceed $ 1 million, placing the owner who had rented his car at some financial risk.

So if you think to start your car keys to a random person who is on the Web, should know a little more complicated case than the owner, an old former Google systems administrator for 24 years and a current cycle the M.I.T (and still a part-time googling) appointed Liz Fong-Jones. His experience has shown that, by using the Web to share your car nothing like sharing your holiday photos or the household tools, and it may be wise to temper the collective lust for innovation to more carefully consider the need for protection in case something terrible happens.

The owner Saga of Mrs Fong-Jones began in early February, with a telephone call from an Executive of RelayRides let him know that his 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid has been in an accident in Boston and was damaged.

She received a cheque to cover the cost of replacement and thought that was the end of it. "RelayRides had to intervene for any claim has happened," she said.

Unfortunately, Patrick Fortuna, the man who had driven his vehicle died and could not say the parties aggrieved that he had rented the car (and insurance) through RelayRides. As Ms. Fong-Jones finally heard his own insurance company, trade, who had heard of the accident one of the counsel for the plaintiffs, who became involved.

Injuries Riding in a Honda 2008 early in the morning of February 5 were Jessica Luisi, Veronica Hodges, Jenna Reilly and Kevan Knecht. According to a preliminary police report, their car was struck by a car in the opposite direction that appears to have been travel South in the northbound lane. The report concluded that Mr. Fortuna would be at fault.

Ms. Luisi had injuries to the right and left hip knee, among other areas of his body, according to an account of sister that Mr. Knecht displayed online, while Ms. Hodges broke both wrists, arm and hand. Most of the bones of the face of Mr. Knecht had been broken, while Ms. Reilly is in need of stitches on his face and suffered concussion syndrome, according to his lawyer.

In addition to the application for reimbursement of medical expenses (Mr. single Knecht are almost $ 100,000, according to his lawyer, William Doyle Jr.), the injured could also file combinations of pain and suffering. "If someone crosses the central line and ploughs in your car, it is a number to you in terms of how you feel in a car," said Jonathan Karon, counsel for Ms. Hodges.

Insurance If there is no good news in this, it is that there is lot of insurance. RelayRides has $ 1 million in coverage per incident (although not per person), while Ms. Fong-Jones has $300,000 in coverage.

Assuming that Mr. Fortuna was actually at fault, the issues, and then revolve around how high requests or legal judgments can go and what insurance company will pay. It is soon to be an estimate, if one of the lawyers for the victims suggested that the claims may total somewhere around $ 1.2 million to $ 1.5 million.

Suppose that the lawyer is not exaggerated, and that the total amount exceeds the RelayRides of $ 1 million coverage. Who pays and how?

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