The family dog is, without a doubt, a very important member of your family. Some people refer to their dogs as their “fur babies”, or “four footed children”. There are a lot of people who take their dogs with them when they drive. What if an accident happens? Will your car insurance cover the injuries that happened to your dog?
You might have pet insurance that covers your dog. You can think of pet insurance as the pet version of the health insurance policy that you have for yourself, and the other human members of your family. A typical pet insurance policy covers things like preventative care, checkups, and treatment of injuries. You should look into the specific details in the policy to see what, exactly, it will cover.
Car insurance, on the other hand, is quite different. If you are involved in a car accident, your car insurance policy will cover the cost of the medical care that the people in the other vehicles require, due to an accident that was your fault. If the car accident was the other guy’s fault, then his car insurance policy will pay for the cost of the medical care that the people in your car need, as a result of the accident.
But, what about your dog? If your dog was with you when your car was involved in an accident, there is potential that your dog could be injured, even if the accident was a “fender bender”. Several years ago, I was involved in a “fender bender” where that could have happened.
I do not have a dog, but the other driver did have a small dog in her vehicle. I was parked in one of the parking spaces in front of a gas station. The other driver was putting gas in her vehicle. When she finished, she got into her vehicle, and backed it straight into mine, at a speed fast enough to break my tail light and dent my trunk. Her small dog was sitting on the front passenger seat, unsecured, perched on top of a large box. The accident caused her dog to fall off the seat, and hit the dashboard before falling onto the floor. Fortunately, in this case, the dog wasn’t injured, but was very scared.
Some auto insurance companies have started recognizing that people truly do consider their pet to be part of their family. They understand that plenty of people bring their pets with them, in their vehicle, when they are driving down the road. As a result, some insurance companies will cover the injuries that your pet receives due to a car accident. It covers the necessary veterinarian care that your dog requires.
Progressive started doing this in 2007. Their policy “covers the people in the accident as well as the cats and dogs”. This policy will cover up to $1,000 of vet bills. Make sure that you tell your vet that you are going to be submitting a claim for the vet bill to the car insurance company. Since then, other car insurance companies have added pet injury coverage to their policies. Ask your insurance agent about it.
Image by MoToMo on Flickr