Got hit by someone who blew a red light — but I was driving my roommate's car and I'm excluded. Now what?

I was in almost this exact situation — borrowed a family member's truck, got rear-ended, and panicked about the same thing. The short answer from my experience: the at-fault driver's insurance covers the damage and your injuries regardless of what your arrangement was with the car's owner. Their insured caused the crash, so their policy is what matters. It was still a headache to deal with, but the exclusion on the other policy didn't come up at all with the at-fault side.

Watch out — the at-fault driver's adjuster may try to use the excluded driver angle to confuse or delay things. They might ask a lot of pointed questions about your relationship to the vehicle owner or whether you had 'permission.' It's a fishing expedition. Don't volunteer extra information. Answer what you have to and keep it brief. They are not your friend.

Worked claims for years. The excluded driver status on the owner's policy is really between the owner and his insurer — it's not a magic shield for the at-fault party. When we were evaluating a third-party claim (meaning a claim against our insured who caused the crash), we looked at our insured's actions, not the claimant's insurance situation. Your excluded status doesn't reduce the liability of the guy who blew the yield sign. That said, get your roommate looped in early because the at-fault insurer will likely want to talk to him as the registered owner too.

Please don't brush off that neck stiffness. Soft tissue injuries from side-impact crashes can take days or even a couple of weeks to fully declare themselves. Keep going to follow-up appointments and document everything — every symptom, every visit. If you only went to urgent care once and then stopped, it can look like you weren't that hurt, which hurts you later.

From a process standpoint: file a third-party claim directly with the at-fault driver's insurance as soon as possible if you haven't already. You don't go through your roommate's carrier for this — you go straight to the guy who hit you. Get the police report number handy, your urgent care records, and any photos from the scene. The excluded driver question is really a first-party issue (your roommate's policy) and shouldn't affect your third-party claim against the at-fault driver's policy. Not legal advice, just process stuff.

Not legal advice, but generally speaking the at-fault driver's liability coverage exists to compensate people they injure — that's the whole point of it. Your status as an excluded driver on a separate policy doesn't negate someone else's negligence or their insurer's obligation to their own insured's victims. The more interesting question is whether your roommate faces any exposure with his own insurer for letting an excluded driver use the vehicle. He may want to look into that separately. If the at-fault insurer starts pushing back in any way, a quick free consultation with a PI attorney wouldn't hurt.

Ugh, this sounds so stressful, especially because you were literally just doing normal errands and some guy ignored a yield sign. Please don't beat yourself up. You didn't do anything wrong in the crash and you deserve to have your medical stuff and the car damage taken care of.

File the claim against the at-fault driver's insurance today if you haven't. Get your urgent care records. Take photos of everything if you haven't already. And give your roommate a heads up to keep his own insurer in the loop — not because you necessarily need to file there, but because surprises are worse than transparency. Don't overthink the excluded driver piece. That's a distraction from the main issue, which is that someone else caused this crash.