Friends, Family and the Back Seat: How 30/60/15 Treats Your Own Passengers

Drivers tend to think of their liability limits as protection against strangers. The people most often in your car are friends, coworkers and family, and if you cause a crash, they are in the same queue as the occupants of the other vehicle. On a minimum policy that queue is short.

One pool for everyone hurt

The per-accident limit, $60,000 on a minimum policy under Vehicle Code 16430, is the total for every injured person in the accident, with no one person paid more than $30,000. Your passengers do not get a separate allowance. If you cause a crash that hurts two friends in your car and the driver of the other car, all three claims are measured against the same $60,000.

A worked example

The capped amounts together exceed the $60,000 per-accident limit, so not even the capped amounts can all be paid. How the $60,000 is divided between them is resolved through the claims process, and the unpaid balances are claims against you. The figures are illustrations; the arithmetic is the point.

Family in the car is a separate question

Insurance Code 11580.1 lets a liability policy exclude bodily injury to an "insured," and policies commonly define insureds to include relatives who live with you. So whether a spouse or child in your car can claim against your liability coverage at all depends on your own policy's wording, which varies by insurance company. Read the definitions section rather than assuming; this page is about everyone else in the car, whose claims sit in the shared pool above.

What protects the people in your car

• Medical payments coverage. A small line that pays medical costs for people in your car under its own terms, without waiting for a liability claim. Who it covers and up to what amount is set by your policy.
• Higher bodily injury limits. More room in the shared pool for everyone, passengers included.
• Uninsured motorist coverage, for crashes someone else causes. It does not apply when you are at fault.

Myth and fact

Myth: "My passengers are covered by the other driver."
Fact: Only if the other driver caused the crash and has enough coverage. When you cause it, your policy is the one they claim against.

Myth: "Family in my car are automatically covered by my policy."
Fact: Not necessarily. California allows a policy to exclude injuries to an insured, and relatives living with you may fall within that.

The carpool and school-run case

If you regularly drive several people, the per-accident limit matters more than the per-person one, because a single crash can involve everyone at once. Four coworkers in one car, each with a modest claim, can use up $60,000 before the other vehicle's occupants are even counted. That is the honest reason drivers who carry passengers daily often look at limits above the minimum, and at medical payments coverage.

To see what changes if you raise the injury limits or add medical payments, get both priced here.