Who Pays After a Catastrophic Commercial Vehicle Crash in Michigan?

Short answer: In Michigan, two different systems pay after a serious crash with a commercial or government vehicle. Your own household no-fault policy pays your medical bills and lost wages first, whoever caused the crash, under MCL 500.3114(1). The money for the injury itself, pain and suffering and the losses that no-fault does not cover, comes from the liability insurance of the business or public body behind the vehicle: a motor carrier's federally required coverage, a rideshare company's policy, a transit agency or city under the motor-vehicle exception to governmental immunity, or a delivery company's commercial policy. Which layer applies, how much sits behind it, and what deadline runs against it all depend on what kind of vehicle hit you, which is why this guide goes vehicle by vehicle.

Catastrophic injuries, a death, a brain or spinal cord injury, an amputation, weeks in the hospital, are where that second system matters most, because a personal auto policy rarely has enough behind it and a commercial defendant usually does.

Which insurance pays the medical bills after a commercial vehicle crash?

Michigan is a no-fault state, so the first claim is for personal protection insurance (PIP) benefits: medical care up to the level the policyholder chose, wage loss, replacement services, and after a death, survivor's loss and funeral benefits. The priority rules decide which insurer pays.

The default is your own policy or the policy of a spouse or a relative who lives with you (MCL 500.3114(1); section explorer). That is true whether you were driving your own car, riding in a friend's car, or walking. A pedestrian or cyclist with no household policy claims through the Michigan Assigned Claims Plan under MCL 500.3115 and MCL 500.3172 (explorer).

Passengers of a vehicle "operated in the business of transporting passengers" are the exception: under MCL 500.3114(2) they claim PIP from the insurer of that vehicle. But the subsection carves out school buses, certified common-carrier buses, buses operated under a government sponsored transportation program, nonprofit buses, taxicabs and transportation network company vehicles, which send the passenger back to the household policy unless no other policy exists. So a DDOT or SMART rider and an Uber passenger usually start with their own insurer, while a passenger on a private charter bus starts with the bus company's insurer.

Since the 2019 reform, the medical benefit has a chosen limit. MCL 500.3107c (explorer) lets a policyholder select coverage of $50,000 per person (Medicaid enrollees only), $250,000, $500,000 or no limit. A catastrophic injury can run through a $250,000 PIP limit in the first weeks, and what is left over becomes part of the claim against the person or company at fault, which is the second system.

Who pays for the injury itself? The liability layers by vehicle type

The claim for pain and suffering, and for economic losses above the PIP caps, is a tort claim against whoever was negligent and whoever answers for them. It opens only if the injury meets Michigan's threshold of death, serious impairment of body function or permanent serious disfigurement under MCL 500.3135 (explorer); a catastrophic injury meets it. Subsection (3)(c) adds that excess economic losses, the allowable expenses, work loss and survivor's loss above the no-fault limits, are recoverable in that same tort claim.

A few points in that table decide cases.

The owner answers for the driver. Under MCL 257.401(1) (explorer) the owner of a motor vehicle is liable for injury caused by its negligent operation when it was driven with the owner's consent. For a company truck that is the company. Long-term lessors (leases over 30 days) are carved out, and the federal Graves Amendment, 49 U.S.C. 30106, protects rental and leasing businesses unless they were themselves negligent, so the paperwork on who owned and who leased the truck matters.

The employer answers for the employee. Michigan abolished joint liability for most defendants in MCL 600.2956, but the same section says it "does not abolish an employer's vicarious liability for an act or omission of the employer's employee." That one sentence is why the employment relationship, employee or contractor, is the first fight in a delivery-van case. Our commercial vehicle accident and delivery vehicle accident pages cover those structures.

The broker can now be sued for choosing a bad carrier. In Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC, decided May 14, 2026, the United States Supreme Court held that a negligent-hiring claim against a freight broker falls within the safety exception of the federal preemption statute, so state law allows it (opinion). The Court left open whether a purely in-state load gets the same treatment, so a Michigan-only haul is still an open question.

Rideshare coverage follows the app. Under MCL 257.2102 a prearranged ride begins when the driver accepts the request, not when you get in. A pedestrian hit by a driver on the way to a pickup reaches the $1,000,000 coverage limit; the same pedestrian hit ten minutes earlier with the app off reaches a personal policy. Our guide to Uber and Lyft crashes in Michigan walks through the phases and the PIP split.

Government vehicles are not immune for bad driving. Public bodies are generally immune while performing a governmental function (MCL 691.1407(1)), but MCL 691.1405 makes them liable "for bodily injury and property damage resulting from the negligent operation" of a vehicle they own. The Michigan Supreme Court confirmed in Hannay v. Department of Transportation, 497 Mich 45 (2014) that a plaintiff who meets the no-fault threshold can recover both economic damages, such as work loss, and noneconomic damages, such as pain and suffering, from a governmental entity under that exception. Police pursuits are the hard case: in Robinson v. City of Detroit, 462 Mich 439 (2000) the Court held the exception is not met where the pursuing police car did not hit the fleeing car "or otherwise physically force it off the road or into another vehicle or object." Suing the officer personally takes gross negligence that was "the proximate cause" under MCL 691.1407(2). Our government vehicle accident page has the details.

Ambulances carry an extra statute. MCL 333.20965(1) shields emergency medical technicians and ambulance operations from liability for acts "in the treatment of a patient" unless the act was gross negligence or willful misconduct. Whether driving the patient to the hospital counts as treatment is unsettled: in Griffin v. Swartz Ambulance Service the Court of Appeals applied the immunity to a transport crash in an unpublished opinion, and in September 2020 the Michigan Supreme Court declined to take the question, with three justices writing or joining statements that they would have heard it (order). A patient hurt inside an ambulance should expect that fight. A driver in another car hit by an ambulance is in a different position, and a government-run ambulance brings the motor-vehicle exception into play instead.

Why the commercial defendant changes the case: evidence and the clock

A business vehicle generates records a private car never does, and the rules only require the business to keep them for so long. For motor carriers regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration: hours-of-service records and supporting documents, including electronic logging device output, for six months (49 CFR 395.8(k)); inspection, repair and maintenance records for one year (49 CFR 396.3); the driver qualification file for the length of employment plus three years (49 CFR 391.51); the accident register for three years (49 CFR 390.15). Post-crash alcohol testing must happen within eight hours and drug testing within 32 hours of a qualifying crash (49 CFR 382.303); if it was not done, the carrier must record why.

Other data is not regulated at all and may be overwritten: truck engine control module event data, dashcam loops, business surveillance video, bus onboard video, rideshare trip data, police in-car video and location logs. Michigan courts can sanction a party that failed to preserve evidence even before a lawsuit, and a jury may infer that missing evidence was unfavorable (Brenner v. Kolk, 226 Mich App 149 (1997)), but an inference is a poor substitute for the video. A written preservation demand to every company involved, sent in the first days, is the most valuable thing a family can do while the injured person is still in the hospital. Our trucking accident page and the guide to why Michigan trucking cases are different explain what those records show.

How fault gets shared, and why the ticket is not the case

Michigan uses comparative fault. Under MCL 600.2959 damages are reduced by the injured person's share of fault, and in an auto case MCL 500.3135(2)(b) bars pain-and-suffering damages altogether if the injured person was more than 50 percent at fault. The Court of Appeals applied that cliff to a city bus claim in Rowland v. City of Detroit (published September 12, 2025), where onboard video showed the plaintiff opening his car door into a passing DDOT bus. Video decides these cases more often than testimony.

Each defendant generally pays only its own share (MCL 600.2956), and fault can be assigned to people who are not in the lawsuit at all (MCL 600.2957), which is why the defense in a commercial case works hard to name an empty chair: a phantom vehicle, a road agency, the injured person. The rear-end presumption in MCL 257.402(a) (explorer) runs against the driver who struck a vehicle from behind and, by its own words, against "the employer of its driver or operator."

One trap: a traffic ticket, or a conviction for a traffic offense, is not admissible in the civil case. MCL 257.731 says evidence of a conviction or civil infraction determination under the Vehicle Code "shall not be admissible in a court in a civil action." The reconstruction, the logs and the video are the case; the citation is not.

When someone dies

A death meets the no-fault threshold, and the estate's personal representative brings the claim under the wrongful death act, MCL 600.2922. Recoverable damages include medical, funeral and burial expenses, the conscious pain and suffering of the person who died between injury and death, and the family's loss of financial support and of society and companionship. The Michigan Supreme Court held in Daher v. Prime Healthcare Services-Garden City (July 30, 2024) that the lost future earnings of the person who died are not a separate category of damages under the act; loss of financial support to the family is. A saving provision, MCL 600.5852, gives the estate two years from the issuance of letters of authority to sue, but never more than three years after the ordinary limitations period ran, and it does not extend any government notice deadline. Our wrongful death page explains who may share in the recovery.

Michigan deadlines that apply to commercial vehicle crashes

The 60-day and 6-month notices are the ones that end cases quietly. The Michigan Supreme Court held in Atkins that there is "no aspect of substantial compliance" with the SMART notice, and in Christie v. Wayne State University (May 2, 2023) that any claim against the state must comply with the Court of Claims notice statute wherever it is filed. Our Michigan injury deadline calculator runs these dates from the crash date.

What to do in the first 72 hours

1. Get the police report number and the name of every company on the scene: the carrier on the truck door, the USDOT number, the ambulance company, the transit agency, the delivery service partner on the van.
2. Send written preservation demands to every company and agency involved, naming video, telematics, electronic logs, dispatch audio and driver records. This is the step most families do not know exists.
3. Report the crash to your own auto insurer and ask for the PIP application. Your deadlines run whether or not you were driving.
4. Collect the declarations page for every vehicle in your household; PIP priority and any uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage depend on them.
5. Give no recorded statement to any company's adjuster. The adjuster's job is the company's file, not yours.
6. Photograph everything, including the vehicles before they are repaired or scrapped, and keep every medical record and bill.
7. Have the priority question, the policy stack and the notice deadlines reviewed before anything is signed.

Common questions

The trucking company's insurer called and offered to pay the hospital bills. Should I accept? Your hospital bills are a PIP claim against your own household policy first, so an offer to "take care of the bills" from the other side usually comes attached to a release of the injury claim. Have it read before you sign anything.

Does the truck company have to carry a million dollars of insurance? Not necessarily. The federal minimum for a for-hire interstate carrier of general freight is $750,000 of liability coverage under 49 CFR 387.9; it rises to $1,000,000 for oil and many hazardous materials and $5,000,000 coverage for the highest-risk cargo. Many carriers carry more, and umbrella and excess policies sit above the primary one. Finding every layer is part of the work.

Can I sue the city if a police car hit me on the way to a call? Yes, if the officer drove negligently. The motor-vehicle exception in MCL 691.1405 covers the negligent operation of a government-owned vehicle, and emergency privileges under MCL 257.603 come with conditions, such as slowing as necessary for safe operation before going through a red light. A chase in which the police car never touched the car that hit you is different under Robinson.

I was a passenger on a DDOT bus that crashed. Who pays my medical bills? Usually your own household auto policy, or a relative's, because government-sponsored transit is carved out of the passenger-carrier rule in MCL 500.3114(2). If no household policy exists, the carveout switches off. The injury claim against the city runs under MCL 691.1405.

What if the delivery driver was an independent contractor? Then the fight is over who controlled the work. Michigan preserves an employer's liability for its employees, and the contracts, the app, the route software and the quota system show who was really directing the driver. Those documents must be demanded early.

Does more than one deadline apply to the same crash? Almost always. A crash with a SMART bus has a 60-day notice, a 1-year PIP notice and a 3-year limitations period running at the same time, and a death adds the estate rules. Missing the shortest one ends that part of the case.

Talk to a Michigan commercial vehicle accident lawyer

A free consultation can tell you which insurer is first in line for the bills, what companies and policies stand behind the vehicle that hit you or your family member, what evidence must be preserved this week, and which deadline is shortest. Those answers decide how a catastrophic case starts.

Call (313) 800-0000 or request a free consultation. There is no fee unless we win. Koussan Law handles Michigan truck accident, commercial and delivery vehicle, bus, rideshare, government vehicle and catastrophic injury cases from offices in Detroit, Dearborn Heights and Marquette, in English, Spanish and Arabic.