South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers Blog
If you were a passenger in a car accident in Miami, you can usually file a claim against multiple insurance policies — your driver’s, the other driver’s, and sometimes your own. Passengers also rarely face the comparative fault arguments that complicate driver claims, which often makes a passenger’s case stronger than the drivers’ own claims.
That’s true whether the crash happened on I-95, Bird Road, the Dolphin Expressway, or a side street in Little Havana.
How Passenger Insurance Claims Work in Florida
The first source of coverage is Personal Injury Protection (PIP) under Florida Statute § 627.736. PIP pays 80% of your medical bills and 60% of lost wages up to $10,000, regardless of fault. Where it comes from depends on your situation. If you own a car, your own PIP pays first, even though you weren’t driving. If you don’t own a car, the PIP on a resident relative’s auto policy may apply. If neither exists, the PIP on the car you were riding in covers you.
Personal Injury Protection is Florida’s mandatory no-fault coverage that pays initial medical bills regardless of who caused the crash. PIP is the floor, not the ceiling. For injuries beyond what PIP covers — and that includes most serious injuries — you turn to the at-fault driver’s bodily injury liability coverage. That could be the driver of the car you were in, the driver of another vehicle, or both, depending on who caused the crash.
Florida Statute § 627.737(2) imposes a permanency threshold for non-economic damages like pain and suffering. To recover those damages, your injury must qualify as a permanent injury, significant scarring, significant loss of bodily function, or death. ER visits, broken bones, and surgeries often meet this threshold; soft tissue strains may not.
A point passengers often miss: you can pursue claims against both drivers in a two-car crash if both share fault. Friedman Rodman Frank & Estrada has handled multi-vehicle car accident cases for South Florida passengers since 1976, including crashes where the passenger was injured by the driver they trusted to get them home safely. That last scenario is awkward, but it’s also common, and the insurance is what pays — not the driver personally.
What to Do as a Passenger After a Miami Crash
Get medical care within 14 days. Florida Statute § 627.736 forfeits PIP benefits entirely if you don’t receive initial medical treatment within 14 days of the crash. Passengers sometimes skip the ER because they don’t feel injured at the scene, then develop neck, back, or head symptoms days later. By then, the 14-day window is closing.
Get the names, license plates, and insurance information for every driver involved — not just the driver of your vehicle. Photograph the scene if you can. Ask the responding Miami-Dade Police or Florida Highway Patrol officer for the crash report number. The report often determines how insurers initially evaluate fault.
Do not give a recorded statement to any insurance adjuster — including the one for the driver who gave you the ride — until you’ve talked to an attorney. Even friendly-sounding questions are designed to limit your recovery. Be especially careful in Uber, Lyft, or rideshare crashes, where the rideshare company’s $1 million liability policy may apply but only if the driver was logged in and on a trip when the crash happened.
Get a Free Case Review
If you were injured as a passenger in a Miami car accident, call Friedman Rodman Frank & Estrada at (305) 448-8585 or contact us online. The firm has handled passenger injury claims across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties since 1976. The consultation is free, and you pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you.