Can anyone help? Please

[aussiegrl273]

I have been searching everywhere for procedures/policies that employee's must follow in order to rent a car to customers. We recently had a customer of Enterprise hit us in a head on collision where he was killed on impact. It was discovered that he had no insurance or property. What I do know is he declined the insurance offered by Enterprise. I feel strongly that Enterprise is negligent for renting a vehicle to some one and failing to get proof of insurance. I have rented from them before and other companies and have always had to provide proof of insurance and drivers license.

[hekiliko'olau]

Originally Posted by aussiegrl273

I have been searching everywhere for procedures/policies that employee's must follow in order to rent a car to customers. We recently had a customer of Enterprise hit us in a head on collision where he was killed on impact. It was discovered that he had no insurance or property. What I do know is he declined the insurance offered by Enterprise. I feel strongly that Enterprise is negligent for renting a vehicle to some one and failing to get proof of insurance. I have rented from them before and other companies and have always had to provide proof of insurance and drivers license.

You do not have to be insured to rent a car. You do not have to take the coverage offered by the rent a car company. However, if you have no insurance and decline the coverage offered to you when you rent the car, you're screwed.

[aussiegrl273]

I am sorry that I was unclear in what I was trying to gather info on. I already know Enterprise has to maintain coverage on each vehicle they rent in my state under the Financial Responsibility Law, governing rental companies. What I'm looking for is their policies/procedures for renting to people. The information is important to me because the state required minimum insurance coverage does not come anywhere near the so far $300,000 in medical bills that I have for my child. In the past when I rented a car from them, I had to provide proof of insurance of which the employee called to verify. For obvious reasons I can't go down and rent a car from them to get a contract with all the fine print. I thought that some one on here may have this info for me.

[hekiliko'olau]

Originally Posted by aussiegrl273

I am sorry that I was unclear in what I was trying to gather info on. I already know Enterprise has to maintain coverage on each vehicle they rent in my state under the Financial Responsibility Law, governing rental companies. What I'm looking for is their policies/procedures for renting to people. The information is important to me because the state required minimum insurance coverage does not come anywhere near the so far $300,000 in medical bills that I have for my child. In the past when I rented a car from them, I had to provide proof of insurance of which the employee called to verify. For obvious reasons I can't go down and rent a car from them to get a contract with all the fine print. I thought that some one on here may have this info for me.

Whether they verify that you have insurance depends on the Group Policy or person who helped you. When I worked for Enterprise, some of us asked for their insurance verification and some of us did not. Car rental companies don't refuse to rent to you if you have no insurance. Since rental car companies are required by law to meet the minimum financial responsibility requirement, the car comes with some coverage automatically. However, as you know very well, it is not enough to cover more than a fender bender. If the person who hit you is at fault and died in the accident and has no assets or estate or insurance, you may be on your own on this one. Unless Enterprise can be proven guilty of negligent entrustment, which will be next to impossible to do, unless they guy was drunk or high or did not have a driver's license when he rented the car, they are not liable for his actions. The only other thing I can think of is if the accident was caused by a mechanical failure which resulted from poor vehicle maintenance (which ERAC is notorious for) like bad brakes or tires, you might have a case against Enterprise. In any event, you will spend months, maybe years proving either. I wish you luck, and I hope you and your family are ok.

You only have to prove your insurance in my old group if you used a debit card to rent. If you had a major credit card, then you were free to go with no proof of anything insurance wise. This varies from group to group though, so I am unsure what policies would be in the area you rented from. These guys are right in saying ERAC only has to cover the minimum amount of liability on their cars, but I tell you this..... if you make a big enough case about it, get lawyers, let them know you mean business, they may change their tune about the minimum coverage. They would rather take care of things and look good in the public spotlight than have their name dragged into a horrible case such as this, by the way I am sorry to hear that you had such a horrible experience, I wish you luck, keep at it, take it to whatever level you need to, let them know you mean business, and you may see results that go outside of "normal minimum coverage policy."


Good luck with it.

[FailingEnterpriseAdmin]

Originally Posted by aussiegrl273

I am sorry that I was unclear in what I was trying to gather info on. I already know Enterprise has to maintain coverage on each vehicle they rent in my state under the Financial Responsibility Law, governing rental companies. What I'm looking for is their policies/procedures for renting to people. The information is important to me because the state required minimum insurance coverage does not come anywhere near the so far $300,000 in medical bills that I have for my child. In the past when I rented a car from them, I had to provide proof of insurance of which the employee called to verify. For obvious reasons I can't go down and rent a car from them to get a contract with all the fine print. I thought that some one on here may have this info for me.

It would actually be very easy to go down and get a copy of the contract. Tell them you want to rent a car and when they give you the ticket to sign, just pick it up and go home. They're not going to assaut you to get it back.

[FailingEnterpriseAdmin]

Originally Posted by aussiegrl273

I have been searching everywhere for procedures/policies that employee's must follow in order to rent a car to customers. We recently had a customer of Enterprise hit us in a head on collision where he was killed on impact. It was discovered that he had no insurance or property. What I do know is he declined the insurance offered by Enterprise. I feel strongly that Enterprise is negligent for renting a vehicle to some one and failing to get proof of insurance. I have rented from them before and other companies and have always had to provide proof of insurance and drivers license.

For damages this large, I think you need to talk with a lawyer. You can subpoena the actual contract the guy signed, both from Enterprise and the guy's estate for the copy. Go through all the details. Ask on here if you don't understand something. Enterprise is definitely hoping you'll go away on this, and will drag their feet and ignore you unless you hit them hard with a lawyer or serious public embarassment.

Send me photos and a copy of the police report and I'll be glad to post it here.

[aussiegrl273]

Thank you so much for your responses, I knew this was going to be very difficult going up against a huge corporation with deep pockets to fight me. However I will take on the challenge, my little one deserves no less. At minimum this will be a PR nightmare for them. I already have had press calling for interviews and I am allowing one large newspaper company where I live to follow her progress and come weekly to interview her. They ran the initial accident on the front page with both of us being air lifted to the hospital and the response of the public calling to find out how she is doing was overwelming enough that they have assigned a reporter to follow her recovery. I am speaking with attorneys and we all know how that process goes. I should add that the police report found the guy that hit us to be completely at fault. It is not known at this point what caused him to lose control of the Enterprise car he was driving and cross into our lane hitting us head on. I can tell you that Enterprise was very quick to collect the car from the salvage yard. I was very lucky that the police did give me 140 pics of the accident scene, combined with hospital videos and photos of all the pain and surgery she has endured.

[aussiegrl273]

I forgot to ask what the groups are and why some groups have to get proof of insurance and other groups don't. Is it policy to get proof of insurance if he rented with a check card? I don't know how he rented the car, but in time I'm sure it will come out.

It was policy when I worked there to have the customer fill out a rental qualification form with a check card, and to verify 2 of the three pieces of information (home address, insurance, and work.) It was not actually policy for one of those three to HAVE to be insurance. It was not legal to require a customer to have insurance on the vehicle, because in the end ERAC was the owner of that vehicle, and they insure it. They are a self insured corporation, meaning they have proven to the govt. that they have the financial backing to insure their vehicles without the use of normal insurance from outside companies. Again, I can't believe they would let this get very far, if you push hard enough, I think you will see results, especially if your situation has already had as much airtime as you say.

This is all just from my experience working for ERAC for 2.5 years. (obviously no longer there) Talk to your lawyer, and get some legal advice, I am no pro when it comes to that side of it.

Again, good luck to you.