Parked Car, Loading and Unloading Injuries Under Michigan No-Fault

You stepped out of your car onto a patch of black ice. You twisted something while lifting a case of water out of the trunk. A delivery van’s ramp gave way under you, or a car nobody was driving rolled across a parking lot and pinned your leg.

Whether your auto insurer pays medical bills and lost wages turns on a short statute and a handful of Michigan Supreme Court decisions that draw fine lines. Auto accident attorneys at Vahdat Weisman Law handle these claims across Michigan. Call (734) 469-4994 for a free consultation. No attorney fee unless we recover for you.

Why a Parked Car Is Treated Differently

No-fault personal protection insurance (PIP) pays for injuries “arising out of the ownership, operation, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle as a motor vehicle,” regardless of who was at fault (MCL 500.3105(1), (2)). The injury has to be closely related to the vehicle’s transportation function. Two hunters overcome by carbon monoxide while sleeping in a camper attached to a parked pickup were not covered because the camper served as a bedroom (McKenzie v Auto Club Insurance Association, 458 Mich 214 (1998)).

A parked car starts on the wrong side of that line. Michigan’s parked vehicle statute says an injury involving a parked vehicle does not arise out of its use as a motor vehicle unless one of three exceptions applies (MCL 500.3106(1)). The Michigan Supreme Court has described that section as a general exclusion, not a separate source of benefits (Bellmore v Friendly Oil Change, Inc., Docket No. 164534 (Mich, Feb 7, 2024)).

The Three Exceptions

Your injury can still be covered if any one of these is true (MCL 500.3106(1)):

• (a) Unreasonable parking. “The vehicle was parked in such a way as to cause unreasonable risk of the bodily injury which occurred.”
• (b) Equipment or cargo. The injury was “a direct result of physical contact with equipment permanently mounted on the vehicle, while the equipment was being operated or used,” or with “property being lifted onto or lowered from the vehicle in the loading or unloading process.”
• (c) Getting in, out, or sitting inside. The injury happened “while occupying, entering into, or alighting from the vehicle.”

You also have to show the injury was connected to the vehicle’s transportation function, and that the connection was “more than incidental, fortuitous, or but for” (Putkamer v Transamerica Insurance Corp of America, 454 Mich 626 (1997)). A tree branch that fell on a woman getting into her parked car failed that test because it would have fallen anyway (Williams v Pioneer State Mutual Insurance Co, Docket No. 148784 (Mich, Oct 10, 2014)).

Slipping Getting Into or Out of Your Car

Getting in. In Putkamer, the driver had opened her door and shifted her weight to put her right foot inside when she lost her footing and fell. She was entering the vehicle and was owed benefits. The Court approved a line between entering and merely preparing to enter (454 Mich at 637 n 10). Applying that line, one Court of Appeals panel denied benefits to a woman who slipped on a slick driveway while reaching for a rear door handle to get a diaper bag (Webster v Auto Club Group Insurance Co, Docket No. 288971 (Mich Ct App, unpublished, Mar 2, 2010)).

Getting out. Alighting is a process that ends when you shift full control of your movement from the vehicle to your own body, typically when “both feet are planted firmly on the ground” (Frazier v Allstate Insurance Co, 490 Mich 381 (2011)). In Frazier, the driver had put items in the passenger seat, stepped away, and turned to close the door when she slipped on ice. She was not covered: her feet were already planted, and the door is part of the car itself, not “equipment” mounted on it.

If you fell while your body was still moving into or out of the seat, the claim fits the statute’s words; if you were already standing beside the car, it likely does not. Write down the sequence of your steps while you remember it, and keep photographs of the ice and where the car sat.

Hurt Loading or Unloading Your Car

A man drove home from work, parked in his driveway, opened the rear door of his pickup, and was hurt while taking out his briefcase, overnight bag, thermos, and lunch box. The Michigan Supreme Court held that unloading personal belongings is, as a matter of law, closely related to a vehicle’s transportation function, and it overruled a Court of Appeals case that had demanded more (Kemp v. Farm Bureau General Insurance Co of Michigan, 500 Mich 245 (2017)).

Kemp did not end the case, however. The Court sent it back because a factual question remained over whether the injury was “a direct result of physical contact” with the property being unloaded. If you hurt your back lifting groceries out of the trunk, your claim is strongest when you can describe the bag or box you were lifting at that moment.

A lift gate or dump bed can fit the equipment half of exception (b) while it is being operated. However, the use still has to connect to transportation: a cement slab that fell from a crane on a parked tow truck was not covered (Winter v Automobile Club of Michigan, 433 Mich 446 (1989)).

A Parked Car That Rolled, or Was Parked Where It Should Not Be

Unreasonable parking. A car left in a travel lane at night without lights can fit exception (a), but parking on the road is not automatically unreasonable. A police cruiser stopped partly in a lane behind a disabled car, with emergency lights and a spotlight on, did not create an unreasonable risk, because the statute recognizes “degrees of risk” (Stewart v. State of Michigan, 471 Mich 692 (2004)).

Rolling cars. A car that rolls away after its driver walks off is arguably no longer “parked” once it moves, which would put the injury under the general no-fault rule. A car left on a slope with no brake set may also fit the unreasonable-risk exception.

Sitting in a parked car that gets hit. When a moving vehicle strikes a parked one, courts generally apply the ordinary no-fault rule to the moving vehicle rather than the parked-vehicle statute (Joseph v National General Insurance Co, Docket No. 364798 (Mich Ct App, Apr 29, 2025), published). Being inside your car also fits the “occupying” exception.

Doored While Riding Your Bike

Many Michigan communities have adopted a traffic rule that a person “shall not open a door of a vehicle in a manner that interferes with or impedes the flow of traffic” (Mich Admin Code, R 28.1498). That rule supports a negligence claim against the person who opened the door.

Whether no-fault pays your medical bills is unsettled. The “alighting” exception describes the person getting out, not you, and Frazier treats a door as part of the vehicle rather than equipment. Our Michigan bicycle accident page covers the rest of a cycling claim.

Hurt at Work Loading or Unloading a Vehicle

If workers’ compensation is available to you, PIP does not cover a parked vehicle injury you suffer in the course of your job while loading, unloading, doing mechanical work on a vehicle, or entering or alighting from it (MCL 500.3106(2), which also counts comp under another state’s law or federal law).

PIP can still apply if the injury arose from the use or operation of another vehicle, such as a passing car striking you at the back of your van (MCL 500.3106(2)(a), (b)). A vehicle being hauled as cargo does not count as “another vehicle.” For entering and alighting, PIP can also apply if you were hurt getting in or out immediately after the vehicle became disabled (MCL 500.3106(2)(b)). The carve-out does not, by its terms, apply to the unreasonable-parking exception.

When both comp and PIP do pay, comp is generally subtracted from your PIP benefits (MCL 500.3109(1)). Our work injury page explains comp claims.

Fixing or Servicing a Car

A customer who fell into a service pit while walking over to look at her old oil filter during an oil change was covered because the injury arose from maintenance of the vehicle, so the Michigan Supreme Court did not need to ask whether the car was parked (Bellmore, following Miller v Auto-Owners Insurance Co, 411 Mich 633 (1981)). Work-related mechanical work is still subject to the comp carve-out above.

If No-Fault Does Not Cover Your Fall

A fall on an unsalted parking lot or store entrance can be a premises liability claim against the business or landlord in control of it, and the fact that ice was visible no longer bars the claim outright; it goes to breach and comparative fault (Kandil-Elsayed v F & E Oil, Inc., 512 Mich 95 (2023)). Our parking lot injuries and snow and ice slip-and-fall pages explain those claims. Your health insurance may also pay medical bills.

For a PIP claim, you generally must give your insurer written notice within one year after the accident, unless it has already paid benefits (MCL 500.3145(1)). If PIP is denied, our no-fault PIP benefits disputes page explains your options.

Why Choose Vahdat Weisman Law?

Parked vehicle claims turn on details like where your feet were and what you were holding. We gather the photographs, statements, and records that answer those questions, and we look for the premises or negligence claim that may exist when PIP does not.

From our Livonia office, we represent injured people and their families throughout Michigan. Founding partners Kara E. Weisman and Jordan S. Vahdat have each been honored as Super Lawyers Rising Stars. Our attorneys are members of the State Bar of Michigan and active in the Michigan Association for Justice. We advance case costs, we work in English and Spanish, and we are available 24/7.

Frequently Asked Questions

• I slipped on ice getting out of my car. Does no-fault pay? It depends on whether you were still getting out. Once both feet were planted on the ground, the Michigan Supreme Court treats alighting as finished (Frazier, 490 Mich 381). A fall after that point may be a premises claim against whoever controls the lot.
• I hurt my back lifting groceries out of my trunk. Is that covered? It can be. Unloading belongings counts as part of a vehicle’s transportation function, but you still have to show the injury resulted directly from physical contact with what you were unloading (Kemp, 500 Mich 245).
• I drive for a delivery company and got hurt unloading my van. Is that comp or no-fault? If workers’ compensation is available to you, it generally pays, and PIP does not, for a parked vehicle loading or unloading injury on the job (MCL 500.3106(2)). PIP may still apply if another vehicle caused the injury.

About the Author

Jordan S. Vahdat is a founding partner of Vahdat Weisman Law in Livonia and handles negligence, premises liability, auto accident, and insurance dispute cases. He has been admitted to all Michigan state courts since 2014, practices in the Eastern District of Michigan, and has served as a case evaluator for the Washtenaw Circuit Trial Court and the 15th District Court since 2020. He is fluent in Spanish.

Talk to a Michigan Parked Car Injury Lawyer

If you were hurt getting into, out of, or unloading a parked vehicle, call Vahdat Weisman Law at (734) 469-4994 or contact us online for a free consultation. Available 24/7, serving all of Michigan, with Spanish-speaking staff.

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Reviewed by Jordan S. Vahdat, Vahdat Weisman Law. Last reviewed October 2026.

This information is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is unique, and prior results do not guarantee future success.