Call Kurtis: I Crashed During a Test Drive, Now My License is Suspended

Part of the fun of car shopping is being able to test drive whatever car you want. But what happens if you crash? A college student from Meadow Vista did.

Then he lost his licensed for driving without insurance. But he didn't own the car. Does he have to have insurance?

Colleen Hogan was in the passenger seat last summer, when her son, Nick crashed into another car during a test drive.

"I was like 'Oh no, oh no," she recalls.

Nick remembers the moments immediately after the crash, "Holy crap, I'm on a test drive and I crashed. Like, who does that?"

At the time, Nick didn't own a car, so he didn't have insurance. And now the DMV has suspended his license for driving without insurance. He was just test driving a car, so did he need his own insurance?

"Under California Vehicle Code, you must be insured before you drive any car," says DMV Spokesman Armando Botello.

The DMV says any driver must be insured before getting behind the wheel, even if it's not your car. In this case Nick could have had what's called a named non-owner insurance policy.

To make to make matters worse, the other driver's insurance company wants Nick to pay $13,542 for causing the accident. Nick and his mom thought the dealership should have insurance.

"Never assume that a business is insured if you don't have insurance," says Phil Reed, Senior Consumer Advice Editor at Edmunds.com

We've learned there is no law requiring dealerships to insure prospective buyers. Although Reed says some larger dealers do.

"The used car dealerships are much smaller businesses. Some of them may have less accountability and a whole lot less insurance," says Reed.

Did the smaller dealership where Nick test drove the car have insurance? We don't know, it's now closed. From the accident report, we know no insurance information was given to the CHP.

"If we had known that he needed insurance to test drive, we certainly would have gotten him insurance," says Colleen.

Nick's license was suspended for a year, starting in October. He might be able to get a restricted license that allows him to drive to and from work.