Injuries from Escaping Motor Vehicle

August 8, 2016

Insured has a standard personal auto policy. Insured is driving with his girlfriend (also named insured on the policy). The weather conditions were poor and very heavy rains flooded the road the couple was driving on. The vehicle was swept away down the road in the flood water. Both the driver and the passenger escaped the vehicle. The passenger escaped but the driver drown in the flood water. Is there BI coverage available to the insured driver or passenger? The cause of death was due to drowning not due to a motor vehicle accident, so it does not appear that coverage is triggered.

Maryland Subscriber

Generally a Personal Auto Policy will state that in order to trigger coverage the insured has to be legally liable for bodily injury that is caused by an auto accident. Here there is no obvious liability claim, unless the insured-passenger can claim that the insured-driver was negligent when he drove down the flooded road. Although some courts have considered water as an object within the meaning of collision, in this case we cannot definitively say that this would be considered an auto accident.

In Part B of the insuring agreement, Medical Payments Coverage, the standard policy says that the insurer "will pay reasonable expenses incurred for necessary medical and funeral services because of 'bodily injury' caused by accident and sustained by an 'insured.'" An accident in Part B is different from an accident in Part A and requires only that the insured is injured while occupying a motor vehicle designed for use on a public road. Because the insureds were escaping the vehicle at the time of the bodily injury and death, they were technically occupying the vehicle at the time of the injuries. Since the bodily injury and death in this case both occurred while the insureds were occupying a motor vehicle designed for use on a public road, this is considered an accident under Part B, Medical Payments Coverage. Since the survivor in this case was an insured, any reasonable medical expenses will be covered. Also, since the standard policy includes coverage for funeral expenses, and because the driver was also an insured, the deceased driver's funeral services will also be covered.