Any driver who offers to take a learner for practice without full casco AND checking a learner would be fully covered- needs their brain examined AND to be fully responsible for costs, I'd say.
We had someone coming to visit and I asked my insurance company how it worked if they wanted to drive the car. He said that the insurance was for the car, not whomever was driving - the only condition was that the driver had to have a valid license (doesn't need to be Swiss). So if she is an L driver does that mean her license would be properly valid? If not I would expect her to have to pony up. If it is valid then the owners insurance would pay, but can you force him to make a claim???
Why would a licensed passenger be fully responsible for the costs? If the learner fails to ask about insurance for damage to the car, the size of excess or knows it's only third party insurance, then they themselves are 'self insuring' the risk if they are sitting in the drivers seat with the engine running.
Well, in this case it seems it is the owner who offered- No idea of age, but I imagine, perhaps, an older adult with a youngster. The person whose car it is and who offered freely- should really ensure s/he is fully covered (yes, agreed- driver too- how stupid not to).
I would think if the owner of the car doesn't make sure they are fully covered some how (via their insurance or the learners) then they are pretty dumb!
A learner will always have a higher excess, I always self insure against all risks except 3rd party. Being pretty dumb has saved me over 50,000 chf, when I was younger I could not have got full cover in any case.
A learner will usually also take lessons, thus there's a professional (implicit) assessment that can be relied upon - simply don't go further than what's been done during the lessons.
Nope, the learner does have a license (the Lernfahrerausweis is called "ausweis", license, for a reason though you'd be right to say that's it's not a full and unqualified license). The Strassenverkehrsgesetz (the law) explicitly calls the learner "Fahrzeugführer" in article 14/14a, a term referenced in the verdict by the Bundesgericht quoted above, based on which the verdict explicitly says that as such he is responsible within his abilities.
It would be nice to learn what people base their posts on. Is it simply opinion, or do they have material explicit facts to back them up? My reference is an almost 60 years old verdict by the Bundesgericht, the highest court in Switzerland. That could of course could be outdated, in which case I'd love to be updated
I lend my car very often- always make sure I am fully covered if there is any doubt whatsoever (eg driver with foreign licence) and certainly would never OFFER or ACCEPT to accompany a learner driver until I made absolutely sure I am covered for all eventualities.
If a learner damaged the car in question, was it because s/he was doing something that was outside of his/her abilities?
It's a bit like running into the back of another driver. Sometimes it is genuinely not the person-at-the-back's fault, but trying to prove it is nigh-on impossible...
The Basel driving school my son used said that it is the accompanying driver who is responsible, in the absence of any other contract.
Their contract puts liability for speeding tickets, for example, on the learner, if the learner was told to slow down and they ignored the instructor. However, if the learner gets caught driving too fast and the instructor hadn't noticed, then the instructor is liable.
If there is an accident, the owner's insurance (or bank account) covers it, if the owner has given the driver permission to drive.
In the original story, the final result was that he told her to brake. He didn't pull on the handbrake. It's his fault.
Ideally have an instructor with dual controls and all the insurances.
OR
If you're going to teach someone to drive, do it in a car that is worth less than 2000 chf, and ideally belongs to the learner. insure fully before getting in.
It all reminds me of the girl in the classic 1995 film Clueless learning to drive.
I gave the information as I received it. The final result wasn't known at the time I started posting, nor was my son around to query about his driving school experience.
I found some of what you wrote helpful in the overall context. Stop whining and calm down. Nobody died.