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You just got hit by a stolen car. Now what?

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BY KEVIN SAWYER – Though a rather rare occurrence, people have been involved in accidents with a stolen car. What they really want to know is if their insurance will cover the damage that happened in such an incident. Are you covered if your you are hit by a stolen car?

The short answer is probably not. For the insurance companies, for the most part, the owner of the vehicle is not liable for crashing into you and, oddly, neither is the thief. The owner of the car is not liable because the car was stolen which, according to the insurance companies, was the unauthorized use of the vehicle. You can, however, buy certain options to your insurance policy that will cover you for damages for a stolen car accident.

Collision and Comprehensive car insurance coverage will cover your damages but this is optional coverage that most people don’t get because they tend to be on the expensive side of the things. The comprehensive coverage usually applies to damages that happen that don’t involve other vehicles such as hail or flooding as well as hitting an animal or having your own car stolen.

You may be able to get your collision portion to pay off but, usually, because of no-fault situations, the pay out is quite often far less than what it would actually take to fix your car. And, collision generally comes with a deductible so if you chose a high deductible to lessen your premium, then you may just be stuck all the way around.

PHOTO CREDIT: Fox 5 San Diego