Office of Risk Management
Miscellaneous Information
The links listed below are provided for your convenience:
- Enterprise Risk Management Key Initiative
- Risk Management Plan July 2018
- Environmental Health and Safety
- MEDEX/Worldwatch
THE USE OF VEHICLES ON PENN STATE BUSINESS:
Our first recommendation is to use a University vehicle when the journey is Penn State-related. From an insurance and legal liability perspective, this is the cleanest way to deal with the situation.
If a professor wants to use his personal vehicle, or has made arrangements with another person to use their vehicle, then the liability situation becomes murky. Pennsylvania law is very clear, that "insurance follows the vehicle". This means that the specific insurance policy purchased to insure a particular vehicle will be first in line to respond to an accident. Therefore, in this circumstance for example Allstate or State Farm or Nationwide or whichever auto liability insurance the vehicle owner purchased, would be responsible to deal with the consequences of any accident involving the vehicle. This is inescapable under PA law. The consequences of this would be that the vehicle owner's insurance rates could be negatively impacted by an accident, with financial consequences to the owner. In a worst-case scenario, depending on the owner's driving history and customer profile, an accident on PSU business could be "the straw that breaks the camel's back" and causes the insurer to cancel the policy, making it more difficult for the owner to secure future insurance