As you are likely aware Bodily Injury Liability (BI) does not cover any injuries the driver of the vehicle that caused the accident. The car owner's BI coverage may cover passengers’ injuries depending upon the terms of their BI coverages with their insurance provider. Some policies cover passengers as long as they are not a household member or a person listed on your policy.

State laws and insurance policy terms regarding who would be covered under your own Bodily Injury Liability coverage differ so we tried to clarify with the California Department of Insurance about who is covered under BI in CA. They stated that in general, if you are the at fault driver in an accident and there are injuries to your passengers, you would have coverage under your Liability policies for their injuries. The exception is if the passengers are relatives or residents of your household.

The CA DOI mentioned as we did above that motor vehicle insurance policies vary slightly on the wording of Bodily Injury coverages. You thus would need to examine the exact language in your policy. If after doing so, you are still unclear, the DOI suggests you put this question in writing to your insurer to get written clarification back from them about who exactly is or is not covered by your BI coverages.

Your own injuries as the at-fault driver would not be covered for certain by your Bodily Injury Liability coverage. For your own injuries to be covered you would need coverages such as Medical Payment (MP or MedPay).

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