Q: If an elderly parent has an auto accident, can family members be held liable?
A:
Normally liability is linked to the person driving the car who caused the accident and as long as there is insurance to cover the accident, the insurance company will take care of the damages. That also assumes that the driver owns a car and is licensed to drive. So if a person who is an adult makes a decision to drive their personal vehicle and causes an accident, I don't see how other people are legally responsible for that accident.
This changes when the driver is allowed to drive a car that they don't own. If the elderly person is allowed to drive a car owned by another person, and the owner of the car knows or should know that the elderly person has issues that make that person unfit to drive but gives them permission to drive anyway, that car owner could be held liable for negligent entrustment. Negligent entrustment can be used to hold a person liable for letting a drunk person drive that persons car. So you are responsible when you allow someone else to drive your car.
While I am not aware of a rule that makes one adult legally responsible for another adult's behavior, I would still be careful. Your can report to the DMV that you suspect that some person is not fit to drive and the DMV could require that person to have additional testing as a condition of maintaining there driver's license. http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/DMV/pages/driverid/reportprobdriver.aspx If you believe that an elderly person cannot safely drive, I think you have a civic duty to report it.
One last point, if someone lives in your household and they drive your car, you could be liable as the head of the household if there is a car accident while the person was driving for some purpose that benefited the household. Your insurance should cover the accident IF you have told the insurance company the names of all persons living in your household and they are included on your car insurance policy. It is also important to have very high policy limits particularly UM/UIM which protects you if you are injured by an uninsured driver, and try to get low deductibles.
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