This is a bit off-topic, but I'm kinda familiar with some people here and would like the input.

Here's the situation. A 10 day elk hunt with six people. One person owns a 4-door diesel pickup that will be the vehicle that tows a borrowed 7x20 enclosed cargo trailer for all the equipment.

On the way home out of the mountains, the owner of the truck is driving his truck and the borrowed trailer. Up ahead more than 100yds away in the road is a very large rock- maybe between the size of a volleyball and a basketball. This section of road is a straightaway. The rock is positioned in the driver’s side tire path.

As he approaches the rock, the driver does not slow down and does not brake- and as he nears the rock slightly veers a bit left as to straddle the rock under the vehicle and trailer. At the last second, the driver realizes that the rock is too big to go over and cranks the wheel to the right to go around the rock. The truck just misses the rock, but since the trailer is wider than the truck the driver's side trailer tires squarely smash into the rock.

The damage to the trailer is two destroyed rims and tires, two bent torsion axles, and a bent frame of the trailer which may total the trailer.

The driver admits fault and says, “It was my fault, I screwed up.” The other people in the cab saw the situation coming and all agree that there was sufficient time to stop before the rock, slow down and go around the rock on the right shoulder, or even go into the oncoming lane since there was no cars coming from that direction.

Turns out the owner of the borrowed trailer has no insurance on the trailer and let’s say the driver’s truck insurance will not cover trailer damage. Let’s also say the trailer is totaled and is not worth repairing. Trailer cost is $6000.

The next day the driver says that he is only 1/6th responsible since the group borrowed the trailer and will only provide 1/6th cost of a new trailer. Who is responsible for the cost of the trailer? Is it a group responsibility since the group borrowed the trailer to go hunting, or is it the driver’s responsibility since it was an avoidable accident? Should the group have to pay for a bad error in driving judgement? Or should the damage costs be spread among all group members since the trailer was borrowed for all to use for the hunting trip? Or is it somewhere in between?