Car accident on way to cruise

[icem86]

Hello - we hit a deer with our car on the way to the Port, the night before our cruise, when we were 5 hours from the port and 13 hours from home. We had hotel, meal and car rental expenses to get back home.

 

What will our trip insurance pay for? Just the lost cruise or other expenses, like hotel, meals and car rental to get back home?

[Happy2cruise]

You should call the insurance you purchased ....sure there is a number on the info/policy/confirmation they sent you. They can answer any and all your questions and help you with the claim. Good luck.

[Guest maddycat]

Hello - we hit a deer with our car on the way to the Port, the night before our cruise, when we were 5 hours from the port and 13 hours from home. We had hotel, meal and car rental expenses to get back home.

 

What will our trip insurance pay for? Just the lost cruise or other expenses, like hotel, meals and car rental to get back home?

 

Sorry to hear about your experience. I hope that everyone is OK and that you get all of your expenses taken care of by your insurance. Please let us know.

[nana541]

Really sorry this happened to you,

 

Totally depends on the kind of coverage you purchased. Some travel insurance would include this type of coverage.

 

Call you travel insurance company!

Edited December 17, 2013 by nana541

[Keith1010]

So sorry this has happened to you.

 

As others have said, best to contact the travel insurance company directly.

 

Keith

[klfrodo]

Please keep us updated on what you find.

I can understand reasons why you should be covered, but I also see potential reasons for denial. All of these reasons should be spelled out in your documentation.

Items I'm concerned about would be the legal start and stop date of the travel insurance. Did you purchase the insurance to start as soon as you walked out the door? Or, did you select the start date of the beginning of the cruise? Then I would be concerned about the travel insurance policies regarding definitions of common carriers, trip delay vs. trip cancellation, etc.

[sail7seas]

So sorry this happened to you and hope no one was hurt.

Please let us know what the insurance company says. I think most of us are interested.

[sirwired]

You'll need to check your policy. For instance, TravelGuard Gold (in my state, anyway) will cover some delay expenses (i.e. a hotel room and meals for the night) if you are held up, but does not list "Traffic Accident" in your own vehicle as a covered reason for cancellation (or catch-up coverage) unless you are injured.

 

And I don't think the rental car will be covered either; that would more properly be the responsibility of your auto insurance (if you have rental coverage.)

[nana541]

Hello - we hit a deer with our car on the way to the Port, the night before our cruise, when we were 5 hours from the port and 13 hours from home. We had hotel, meal and car rental expenses to get back home.

 

What will our trip insurance pay for? Just the lost cruise or other expenses, like hotel, meals and car rental to get back home?

 

Would sure be interesting to know what the final outcome was with the OP.

[icem86]

Thanks for all the concerns. We were all fine, my wife and two boys age 4 and 7 were with me. Our 7 year old actually did not even wake up. We had to wake him to make sure he was ok. It scaried us but not the boys.

 

Not too much damage to the care, but the air bags went off which made the car undriveable until the car computer is reset and air bags remployed.

 

We ended up leaving the car in Mississippi because the car insurance could not get an adjuster out there until 5-6 days later. And I do not have car rental on my car insurance.

 

I did call the trip insurance holder, but they just said to submit everything and they will review the claim after I file it. I had to wait 5 days to get the police report, so I just mailed everything in this week. I have not heard back yet.

 

I am just curious what they will cover and what they will not. Hard to wait.

 

Funny story. On day 2 of being stuck in a small town Mississippi hotel. Our 4 year old says "Are we still on our Cruise". He did not even know what he was missing. But my wife and I did. Especially when we got back to Minnesota and it was negative 10 degrees when we were suppose to me in Belize City that day.

[nana541]

Thanks for coming back to us... So thankful your family is ok! Might be time to re-evaluate your Auto Coverage :)

Have you had a chance to read over you Travel Insurance coverage? I'm surprised they could not give you better info when you called in.

Was this coverage thru the cruise line or 3rd party coverage?

Time to just make yourselves feel better my making plans for your "next" cruise!

 

Your little one is too funny!

[icem86]

Yes, maybe I will upgrade my auto to inculde car rental, but this also seems like a once in a lifetime ordeal.

 

I have read my trip insurance policy over and over, but of course there is a lot of generalizing. It does say "traffic Accident en Route" is a reason that my cruise cost will be covered but.. I don't know if that means other costs will be covered. Under benefits it says Travel Accident is covered up to $10,000 but I don't know if means only during the cruise or "en Route" to cruise.

[icem86]

It cost $704.00 to rent a car in Mississippi and leave it in Minnesota 1.5 days later. I got chared 45 cents per mile to have a one way rental. Tough to pay out.

 

On way home, I thought that maybe we should have bought a used car and then sold it once we got back home. That might have a better idea.

[nana541]

Oh that sounds hopeful "en route" :)

[icem86]

Coverage was through TA, Travelex Insurance

[nana541]

Now put a smile on your face and plan another cruise!

[Guest maddycat]

Yes, maybe I will upgrade my auto to inculde car rental, but this also seems like a once in a lifetime ordeal.

 

I have read my trip insurance policy over and over, but of course there is a lot of generalizing. It does say "traffic Accident en Route" is a reason that my cruise cost will be covered but.. I don't know if that means other costs will be covered. Under benefits it says Travel Accident is covered up to $10,000 but I don't know if means only during the cruise or "en Route" to cruise.

 

I added car rental to our auto insurance policy many years ago after a co-worker had an accident and had to pay for a car rental out of pocket. I just checked our auto insurance policy to find out how much we pay for the car rental. It's only $40 a year per car. Not much even for NJ. We have one of the hightest auto insurance rates in the country.

[cruiseco]

You'll find somewhere in the paperwork not only what the covered reasons for cancellation are (in this case the auto accident on the way to the pier) and you'll also find wording that explains what the trip cancellation benefit will cover. The following is from the most popular Travelex plan:

 

"Pre-Departure Trip Cancellation Benefits

 

If you are prevented from taking your Covered Trip for one of the Covered Reasons, we will reimburse you, up to the amount in the Schedule for the amount of forfeited, and prepaid, non-refundable, and unused Payments or Deposits that you paid for your Covered Trip."

 

Note that there is nothing in there saying they will pay anything other than your forfeited trip costs. Generally, if it's not listed it's not covered. I doubt they will pick up your other expenses.

 

As far as the "Travel Accident" benefit, this is an AD&D - type benefit meant to reimburse you for the loss of life or permanent loss of limb or vision as the result of an accident. It sounds like none of this happened. Here's the payout schedule:

 

"Loss: Percentage of Principal Sum Payable:

Life 100%

Both Hands and Both Feet or Sight of Both Eyes 100%

One Hand and One Foot 100%

One Hand and Sight of One Eye 100%

One Foot and Sight of One Eye 100%

One Hand, One Foot or Sight of One Eye 50%"

 

I think the best bet would be to file a trip interruption claim. Here's what this one Travelex plan covers:

 

Post-Departure Trip Interruption Benefits

 

If you are unable to continue your Covered Trip for one of the Covered Reasons, we will reimburse you, less any refund paid or payable, for unused travel arrangements, plus the following:

 

A) the additional transportation expenses by the most direct route from the point you interrupted your Covered Trip: (a) to the next scheduled destination where you can catch up to your Covered Trip; or (b) to the final destination of your Covered Trip; or

B) the additional transportation expenses incurred by you by the most direct route to reach your original Covered Trip destination if you are delayed and leave after the Scheduled Departure Date.

C) your additional cost as a result of a change in the per person occupancy rate for prepaid travel arrangements if a Traveling Companion's Covered Trip is interrupted and your Covered Trip is continued."

 

I can see how perhaps the cost of the rental car to return home could fall under (A) above assuming that you included the travel dates to and from the port in the insured dates as then the "final destination of your Covered Trip" would be your home. If you only insured the cruise dates you'd be out of luck -- the "final destination of your Covered Trip" would be the cruise port.

[Hlitner]

What an unfortunate story, but we are happy to hear that nobody was injured. As others already said, your coverage depends on your specific policy. But we are curious. Did you consider trying to actually get to the cruise (after the accident) and dealing with the other issues once you got back from the cruise?

 

Hank

[icem86]

Yes, I tried to find other ways to get to New Orleans before the deadline. We were in a small Mississippi town, still about 5 hours away. No car rental places open on Sunday.

 

The bus going through town was not an option given the time it ran through. I even called an uncle who has a winter vacation home in Alabama. He was 4 hours away, so, it would have taken him 4 hours to get to our location and then another 5 hours to get to New Orleans. It might have worked, but his car would not hold him, us 4 and all of our stuff, especially with 2 kids still in car or booster chairs. Plus the weather was bad, so it was asking a lot for him to drive that much, early in the morning.

 

Plus my wife was stressed to the max.

[Hlitner]

Yes, I tried to find other ways to get to New Orleans before the deadline. We were in a small Mississippi town, still about 5 hours away. No car rental places open on Sunday.

 

The bus going through town was not an option given the time it ran through. I even called an uncle who has a winter vacation home in Alabama. He was 4 hours away, so, it would have taken him 4 hours to get to our location and then another 5 hours to get to New Orleans. It might have worked, but his car would not hold him, us 4 and all of our stuff, especially with 2 kids still in car or booster chairs. Plus the weather was bad, so it was asking a lot for him to drive that much, early in the morning.

 

Plus my wife was stressed to the max.

 

ARGH! What a combination of unfortunate events. Guess the God's had determined that you should not take this particular cruise. Sounds like you did everything right (going a day early) and just ran out of options.

[icem86]

Got money back from cruise but not any expenses for hotel, meals and car rental to get back home, which added up to over $1,000. Glad I bought insurance for the cruise but I guess I should have started the policy one day earlier. Accident was at 10:30 p.m Saturday night, if it was a 1.5 hours later, I would have gotten expenses paid.

 

My damaged Car is still in MS, still waiting for parts to come in for repair. I was hoping car would be totaled, but no luck.

[Guest maddycat]

Got money back from cruise but not any expenses for hotel, meals and car rental to get back home, which added up to over $1,000. Glad I bought insurance for the cruise but I guess I should have started the policy one day earlier. Accident was at 10:30 p.m Saturday night, if it was a 1.5 hours later, I would have gotten expenses paid.

 

My damaged Car is still in MS, still waiting for parts to come in for repair. I was hoping car would be totaled, but no luck.

 

Thanks for letting us know what happened with the insurance. I'm sorry that all of your expenses weren't covered. At least we now know that it is wise to extend the insurance dates to cover travel to and from the cruise.

[azcater]

wow, thanks for the update and so sorry about what happened. Ugh!! I'm researching options for travel insurance right now and this is great information to know.