13yo friend of 13yo daughter was driving my daughter’s go-kart (without permission). Went off of our property onto the road and rolled the go-kart. Only driver was injured, she was taken to ER and had mild concussion, otherwise fine, thank God. Find out after the fact that the kids had been drinking! They’d gotten alcohol from an older teenage boy. This happened 2-1/2 months ago. I just got a copy of the hospital bill and a request from the parent of the driver today asking me to pay what their insurance did not pay. The last time we spoke was 2 days after the accident, I had called again to make sure her daughter was OK. I went to the ER with them and called multiple times after the accident to make sure all was OK.
The accident didn’t happen on our property, the girls didn’t have permission to be using the go-kart at the time, the girl driving was the one who got injured and they certainly didn’t have permission to be drinking. Are we responsible for this hospital bill? I feel splitting it with the parent of the driver would be more than fair. However, if we do that would we be admitting some kind of fault or responsibility that could later come back to haunt us? I don’t want any hard feelings with this parent, I’m just surprised they waited so long to address the situation and I don’t know what to do. (I want to mention that if it had been my daughter driving I would definitely be paying the whole bill!) Thanks for any help!
