What if I hit a parked car? Am I covered by insurance?

It happens to the best of us: you're not paying attention or get distracted for just a second, and bam! You knick a parked car. While this is incredibly annoying and maybe even slightly embarrassing, it is truly not the end of the world. You have options and coverage, especially with auto insurance lake charles. Accidents are the reason we have insurance, right?

When you choose your car insurance policy, you get to make a lot of decisions about the type of coverage you want. That being said, every policy will still include liability coverage, which includes both property damage and bodily injury. This will cover physical damage to a car and also medical bills should somebody get hurt in an accident.

Generally, a parked car accident won't involve bodily injury, but it will involve property damage claims. Property Damage Liability (PDL) is a feature that is found on most car insurance policies. You will file under PDL if you hit a parked car. Here are the steps you need to take if you've hit a parked car:

1) File a Claim

First things first, contact your insurer to file a claim. This will involve an investigation to determine fault, which is obviously very easy if you hit a parked car. The insurer will take the initiative to talk to the other driver's insurance after you have filed your claim and determine what their coverage is. Together, both insurers will decide how much of the damage will be covered by what party.

2) Assessing Damages

The claim adjusters are supposed to determine the maximum amount of responsibility for a claim.  The assessment of who owes what, what each insurance company will pay, and what the total costs are, fall to the claim adjusters.

3) Look for Changes in Your Policy Premiums

Because hitting a parked car is an at-fault loss, your premiums are likely to go up from this incident. This may be frustrating, especially in cases where nobody was injured. Another frustration when hitting a parked car is that property damage policies do not cover the damage to your own property because you are the one at fault. So if your car is scraped and damaged, it will fall to you to cover these damages out of pocket. Luckily, most damage to parked cars is fairly minor because of the nature of these accidents.

It is important to note that because damages are assessed based on the total value of the car, sometimes very old and cheap cars may be considered totaled after being hit. This does not happen often but it is something to be aware of.

The takeaway

The amount of coverage going forward with the car will depend on your personal plan and the nature of the accident. You should be covered for at least some of the costs, but the amount that you are covered for is up for question.

Auto insurance lake charles gives you options vehicle coverage. Accidents happen, so be sure to make sure you are covered before they do!

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