Recovering After a Hit-and-Run by a Rental Car Driver

Attorney Answer

You are not out of options because the driver ran. Your own coverage is built for exactly this situation, and the car being a rental gives investigators a paper trail an ordinary hit-and-run does not have.

First, the money that does not depend on catching anyone. Florida personal injury protection pays regardless of who caused the crash. Section 627.736(1) sets a limit of $10,000 in medical and disability benefits, with medical benefits at "Eighty percent of all reasonable expenses for medically necessary medical, surgical, X-ray, dental, and rehabilitative services, including prosthetic devices and medically necessary ambulance, hospital, and nursing services if the individual receives initial services and care pursuant to subparagraph 1. within 14 days after the motor vehicle accident." Lost income is covered at 60 percent under § 627.736(1)(b). The 14-day window is a condition on the benefit, and missing it is the most common self-inflicted loss in Florida crash claims.

Second, uninsured motorist coverage. This is the coverage designed for a driver who cannot be identified or has nothing. Section 627.727(1) requires it to be part of a bodily injury liability policy unless it was turned down in writing: "However, the coverage required under this section is not applicable when, or to the extent that, an insured named in the policy makes a written rejection of the coverage on behalf of all insureds under the policy." If nobody at your household signed such a rejection, you likely have this coverage, and a hit-and-run is what it is for. Policies usually impose their own prompt-notice and reporting conditions on these claims, so tell your insurer quickly.

Third, the rental company. Do not expect the company that owns the car to be liable simply because it owns it. A federal statute, the Graves Amendment, 49 U.S.C. § 30106(a), bars holding an owner in the business of renting or leasing vehicles liable under state law merely for being the owner, so long as there was no negligence or criminal wrongdoing on the owner's part. What the rental company is genuinely useful for is identification: the plate ties the car to the company, and the company's records tie it to whoever rented it. That renter — or whoever they let drive — may have insurance, and the rental agreement may add coverage of its own.

Fourth, the flight itself. Leaving the scene is a crime in Florida, not a traffic ticket. Section 316.061(1) requires a driver in a crash resulting only in property damage to stop immediately, return, and remain at the scene until fulfilling the duties in § 316.062 to give identifying information and render aid; violating that subsection "commits a misdemeanor of the second degree." If anyone was injured, the duty runs through § 316.027 instead, and the offense is a felony. That is a matter for law enforcement, and it also gives them a reason to work the rental trail.

What you can do

1. Give the responding agency everything you noticed — the plate, the rental company markings or barcode decal, the make and color, the direction the person ran, and any description.

2. Get the crash report number now and request a copy when it is available.

3. Notify your own insurer promptly and ask it to open both PIP and uninsured motorist claims. Hit-and-run claims often carry short notice conditions in the policy itself.

4. Be seen by a physician, hospital, or another provider § 627.736(1)(a) lists within 14 days of the crash, even if you felt able to keep going to work that day.

5. Ask a Florida attorney before giving a recorded statement to any insurer, including your own, and about getting the rental company's records identifying the renter.

Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. The PIP treatment window in § 627.736(1)(a) is 14 days from the crash. The deadline to sue keys to your accident date: for a negligence claim accruing before March 24, 2023, the former four-year period under § 95.11 applied; for one accruing on or after that date, § 95.11(5)(a) sets two years. Your uninsured motorist claim runs on its own contractual conditions on top of that. Have a Florida attorney confirm all of it against your actual dates instead of estimating.