My first month living in NH back in the early 80’s I was rear-ended by a driver with no insurance. No one was injured…but about $1000 damage to my pickup. Luckily I had underinsured insurance that covered my loss.
Health insurance doesn’t cover auto claims unless the injured person doesn’t have auto insurance
Here is a just-published article that might be relevant to this particular collision…and millions of others…
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Yes it does. In fact your first insurance provider will be you health insurance. Then when you make a claim against the drivers insurance your health provider will put a lien on the policy for what they paid out.
Hmm, I know in the Emergency Room I work in (Level 2 Trauma Center) here in Pennsylvania, we have staff specifically for MVAs that make sure that all of the auto insurance information is gathered and entered correctly for purposes of submitting claims for reimbursement. PA also requires auto insurance to drive. When I was a passenger in an MVA 5 or 6 years ago, all of my claims went through my auto insurance which went after the driver’s insurance for payment. My medical insurance was never used, even for my antibiotics and pain killers.
PA is one of the 5 states with No-Fault. One of the worse consumer laws ever passed.
Which is the point of why having uninsured motorist is not necessary if you have good health insurance. Uninsured motorist does not pay to fix your vehicle from a uninsured driver. That is what your collision insurance is for.
Sorry to hear this unfortunate news OP. Your son came away unharmed, that’s a good thing at least. There’s not a lot that can be done to prevent this kind of accident, but avoiding standing between two side-lined cars on the shoulder seems like a lesson that we all should learn.
It’s not just MA, Bill. On Long Island, it’s OK to drive on the LIE shoulder during rush hour, in some parts.
Recently, on the Northern State Parkway (which parallels the LIE), I saw a police car chasing after a speeder. The cop was driving in the shoulder. The parkway is a curvy road. A lot of fast traffic in the right lane. Luckily there wasn’t a disabled car on the shoulder.
Okay, I give… what’s LIE shoulder? I have no idea.
CSA
Long Island Expressway.
Sorry to hear about this accident. Hope everyone is OK.
@keith Sorry to hear about that kind of accident happy that your son is OK our prayer’s for the young lady & her passenger & yes this happen’s all to often.
A lesson we might learn is to move away from the vehicles when you get out. Hanging around them is asking for trouble. I had a friend that died in the 1980s. He and his girl friend were driving from California to Maryland and were stopped by an accident on the Interstate in Indiana. They were the last car in line and remained in the car. A tractor trailer crashed into them, jumped on top, and crushed them as it slid through about seven cars. Had they left the car and move onto the median strip, they would not have died that night.
Coverage may be different in other states but in Minnesota, your own insurance covers medical expenses regardless of fault. Everyone is required to carry liability insurance although just like everything else, some don’t. No fault does not include any pain and suffering etc. but once you are beyond 60 days or something like $4000, you can file a claim against the other driver if you can show it was their fault. No fault does not cover property damage but if you have collision coverage, you can get your car fixed under your own policy and then they can recover those costs and your deductible through subrogation. But that can take a year or more.
Sorry I’m a little fuzzy on this being out of it for about 40 years. The purpose of no fault though was to reduce the time and expense of litigation and providing immediate medical coverage for the insured. I just am not clear anymore when your personal health policy would take over if at all but I believe it would be after you have exhausted your own auto policy benefits. Health insurance would then need to recover their costs by going after the other driver.
So if you run into someone else and its your fault, and they don’t have insurance, they are out of luck for medical benefits until they go beyond that initial threshold and can get into permanent injury or pain and suffering. Think about that when you renew your policy.
Glad to hear your son is ok and hopefully the injured ladies will come out of this.
As for the culprit, all I can say is…moron.
Running into road construction or public safety people has been enough of a problem here in OK that the legislature enacted a 10,000 dollar fine for doing so.
I wonder sometimes if a distraction such as texting is the cause of all of these kinds of accidents or if some of them is similar to target fixation which was suffered by some late ground attack pilots in WWII.
They were so intent on staring at a target (disabled vehicle on the side of the road in this case…) that they flew themselves right into the ground.
In NY, no fault coverage pays the medical bills for everyone in your car, it doesn’t matter if the other driver is at fault. The only exception I can think of is if you hit a pedestrian. I know if the don’t own a car, your insurance pats for them, if they do own a car their medical bills are covered under their own no fault.
I’m sorry to hear about this, Keith. I’m glad it wasn’t worse. Best to you and you son.
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The shoulder is a breakdown lane . Signs would say:" During 4pm - 6pm ok to drive shoulder"
No, nobody plans to drive on anyone’ shoulder: 
oldtimer: I’m sure you’re right, but why would a pedestrian’s auto policy come into play? (S)he wouldn’t be driving when getting struck by a car. Why not homeowner’s insurance while we’re at it?
Some time ago, in Connecticut, a distracted young teen hit a heating oil truck. The truck caught fire, causing expensive damage to an overpass. She admitted fault, yet people commented on the news comment lines that the truck’s insurance company should pay for he damage since they had a better policy.