Will an Insurer Cover the Cost of an Accident Occurring While Fleeing the Police?

High-speed police chases are notoriously costly and dangerous. In fact, such chases pose such a high risk of damages and injuries, many cities prohibit their officers from chasing a car unless the driver has committed a violent crime. If such a chase does occur, though, would the fleeing driver’s car insurance policy ever cover the damages he/she causes? Read on to learn when coverage might apply.

Criteria Necessary for Coverage to Apply

Here are the conditions that must be satisfied for the insurance policy of the driver running from the police to pay for the injuries and damages that result from the chase:

1. Driver must be in his/her own vehicle. Commonly, the driver on the lam is in a stolen vehicle. For coverage to apply, the driver must be in a car with his/her name on the title.
2. Driver must carry liability coverage. The driver’s policy must have liability protection with limits large enough to pay for the damages and injuries caused.
3. Driver’s policy must not contain an exclusion. Policies usually have long lists of exclusions describing losses that the insurer will not cover. If an accident resulting from a police pursuit is excluded from the policy, coverage will not apply.
4. Damages must be direct result of driver’s negligence. People who suffered injuries or damages as a result of a police pursuit have successfully sued cities and police departments in the past. As such, the damages in question must be directly tied to the driver and not the other parties involved in the chase.