Car insurance generally includes cars in Hawaii. The types of auto insurance offered to cars in Hawaii are collision, comprehensive, and property damage liability. You must have liability protection for property damage and personal injury in Hawaii. The PIP follows the driver, unlike liability coverage.
In that case, your insurance would only have to take effect to cover gaps in your insurance policy or if your insurance ran out before the damages were fully covered. If it's clear that you didn't authorize someone else to drive your car and a collision occurs, the driver's insurance will be responsible for coverage. If someone else drives your car and has an accident, your car insurance will likely cover any resulting damage. For more information on Hawaii's auto insurance coverage requirements and options, see the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs motor vehicle insurance information page.
Hawaii is also one of about a dozen states with no-fault auto insurance, meaning that when you're injured in a car accident, your options for compensation may be limited. As mentioned above, to file a liability lawsuit against the person who caused your car accident (and circumvent the limits of no-fault) in Hawaii, your car accident injuries must meet one of the three thresholds established by state law. You can choose to leave someone out of your insurance because they're a high-risk driver and it's expensive to insure them, such as a new driver with multiple speeding tickets or someone with a history of driving under the influence of alcohol on their driving record. If they cause damage in that situation, their insurance policy would be the main coverage, while yours would be the secondary coverage, as long as you can show that you didn't give them permission to use your car.
Car insurance typically follows the car instead of the driver, so the car owner's insurance will cover the accident, even if someone else is driving. At the end of the day, one of the best things you can do is consider adding people to your insurance if they use your car regularly. It's always a risk to lend your car to someone else, because you could definitely end up filing a claim with your own insurance in Hawaii. It's important to note that insurance companies generally expect any family member who lives in their home and who drives their car on a regular basis to be specifically named and included as a driver in their policy.
In most situations, driver's insurance plays an important role regardless of the car you're driving and who caused the accident. In Hawaii, the PIP benefits of an auto insurance policy take effect regardless of who was at fault for the car accident. However, the responsibility may fall on the friend who keeps your car if they have their own car insurance. If you let someone lend you your car and that person causes an accident in Hawaii, bodily injury liability insurance pays for the injuries of the other driver and their passengers.
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