Lots of accidents happen at home, and that’s one of the reasons why insurance policies are simply sensible. Even car accidents can happen inside in your own garage. You can bang yourself with the door, or a jack can fail while you’re underneath. You may even drive in the morning when the coffee hasn’t kicked in yet, and you may suddenly go forward and crash into the garage wall instead of backing out of the garage slowly. The home insurance coverage will pay for the damage to the garage, while the car insurance may then cover the damage to your car.
But what if there’s somehow another driver crashing their car into your garage or your home? Usually, this means that this driver’s insurance policy will come into play. But you need to keep in mind that their insurance policy also has a limit on the coverage. If that limit is just $30,000 but the damage to your home is worth $40,000 then you need to check your homeowner insurance policy to see how much your insurance will cover in addition to the other driver’s insurance policy.
This may seem like some sort of strange and extremely unlikely scenario, but it’s probably a lot more common than you may suspect. Just in September of 2017, the news was full of reports of such accidents:
- In Hampton, Virginia, a car crashed into a home located on Big Bethel Road. While the living area of the house wasn’t touched, the damage to the garage was so severe that the structure was deemed unsafe after the accident.
- In Overland Park, Kansas, a 20-year-old woman drove her SUV into a home, which left a huge hole in their garage. The garage was attached to the main part of the house, and the damage forced out the family residents into a hotel until the huge hole can be fixed.
- In San Francisco, a car crashed into a home’s garage, and it caused the power to shut down in that part of the neighborhood. The damaged building’s structural stability had to be shored up, though some of the residents in the area had to be displaced due to the shutdown of utility services.
- In Cleveland, Tennessee, a man was driving on a road when he suddenly swerved to avoid colliding with another vehicle coming straight at him. While he did succeed in avoiding a collision with the other car, he instead hit the corner of a house after plowing through the front yard. The driver suffered minor injuries, though no one else was hurt. He also passed a sobriety test.
- The recent incident Fort Wayne, Indiana was even more serious. A man crashed his SUV into a house, and then immediately committed suicide by shooting himself. The house was fortunately empty, but it had been put up for sale. The house would definitely have to be repaired first before it would sell.
- In Dallas, Texas, assailants fired multiple shots at a man driving a Yukon. The driver suffered major wounds as he crashed the vehicle into a nearby home garage. The assailants even stopped at the house and continued to fire until the fled the scene.
- Sometimes the driver even hits a car deliberately, like what happened in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The man drove his huge truck into the home of his partner after a dispute. The crash caused serious damage to the house and the man is now in jail.
These reports come in from all over the US, and they’re depressingly common. They’re just another extra reason why home insurance is an absolute must.