Civil liability in the car: who is responsible in the event of an accident?

Civil liability in the car: who is responsible in the event of an accident?

The driving school student is not legally considered a driver because he has not yet obtained a driver's license. In the event of an error on his part, the Insurance Code is clear: his liability in the event of a driving school accident cannot be held and he will be considered, in the eyes of insurers, as a third party.

So what insurance for a driving school student? When taking driver training, a student does not have to take out any special insurance. In fact, he has already paid for his coverage through the flat rate paid at the driving establishment. In the event of a claim and thanks to the insurance taken out by the driving school, it will be covered by the vehicle's Civil Liability guarantee.

As you can see, in the event of a car accident, it is the driving instructor (considered as the driver) and the driving school who will be legally considered responsible. It is therefore essential that the latter be covered by their driving school insurance against this risk. We remind you that in the event of an accident, an all-risk plan will generally cover instructors, vehicles and your students, while a third-party plan will only cover your students.

In the event of a violation, it is therefore the instructor who will lose points on his license and will have to pay the fine, and not his student. These rules also apply to accompanied driving: it is the license holder who will be considered the driver, not the student.
What insurance for an independent driving school instructor?

The Civil Liability of instructors:
As we have seen, in the event of an accident caused by a driving school student, it is always the driving instructor who will be considered responsible. It is therefore absolutely necessary that the instructor is covered by Civil Liability. Depending on your situation, there are several options to cover you:

    Check the Civil Liability of the driving school for which you intervene covers the instructors. Often this is the case with all-risk plans.
    If this is not the case, you will have to take out professional Civil Liability insurance independently.

The bodily guarantee for drivers:
Here too, the principle is the same. It all depends on the quality of the contract entered into by the driving establishment for which you work:

    Either the latter has taken out a full driving school insurance contract, in which case any bodily injury you may suffer in the event of an accident will be covered.
    Either the driving school has only contracted third party or intermediary coverage. In this case, you can independently take out body coverage. This individual protection will complement the driving school insurance guarantees.

Both independent instructors and the driving establishments themselves must be able to prove at all times that their vehicles are well insured against any damage caused to third parties.