June 3, 2019
Collision v. Comprehensive on a standard personal auto policy: A pickup with a small attached utility trailer was backing up. While backing up slowly the pickup turned too sharp and jackknifed the front left corner of the trailer into the left side panel of the pickup. Can a reasonable comprehensive argument be made that since the crushing force to the side of the pickup came from the ATTACHED trailer, the trailer was a part of the vehicle, and thus a vehicle cannot impact itself? Thus this is an “other than collision” incident?
Washington Subscriber
We described a collision loss as follows in our article “What is Collision?”: Collision in the personal auto policy “means the upset of 'your covered auto' or a 'non-owned auto' (defined terms) or the impact with another vehicle or object.” Your covered auto in the PAP includes a trailer designed to be pulled by a private passenger auto or a pickup or van. So the insured's pickup and trailer were each “your covered auto.” We see this as a collision loss.