Rideshare Accident 101: How to Handle This Unique Scenario

People often ask us about rideshare accidents and who’s responsible for paying for injuries in Uber or Lyft accidents. The question is valid, but the answer is more complicated than for people who are in car crashes under ordinary circumstances.

In a car crash, there’s typically one driver and one insurance company involved. In a rideshare accident, there can be several sets of insurance companies and several drivers involved. We’ll discuss what makes rideshare accidents different from other car accidents and what people can do to protect themselves.

Key Takeaways

Here’s what you need to know about rideshare accident claims:

• The rideshare driver’s insurance will pay for your injuries, not the company’s.
• There are three different categories of rideshare accident injuries: passenger, other driver, or pedestrian.
• The company’s $1 million policy won’t apply in every situation – there’s a rideshare insurance coverage gap.
• The app data is among the most important evidence for determining the cause of the accident.
• There’s a two-year statute of limitations in Ohio for all personal injury claims.

Understanding this information will help determine your rideshare accident claim’s outcome.

What Makes a Rideshare Accident Different

It’s the insurance. More specifically, whose insurance applies to the accident and when.

In a typical car accident, the at-fault driver’s insurance covers the costs. In the case of a rideshare accident, the insurance company is a little more involved because the driver is using their personal vehicle for commercial purposes. Personal auto insurance policies usually exclude commercial work, so the driver’s insurance won’t apply to the accident.

To account for this, Uber and Lyft offer insurance for their drivers. However, this insurance doesn’t last for the entire work period for the driver. It activates and deactivates based on the work that the driver is doing through the app.

The Coverage Periods: Why Timing Is Everything

Both Uber and Lyft offer insurance policies around the idea of “periods” – think of it like a dimmer switch for insurance coverage. The closer the driver is to actually having a passenger, the more “on” the insurance is. The insurance coverage is only offered during certain periods of the driver’s shifts. Here is an overview of those periods:

• Period 0 occurs when the app is off. During this period, the driver is not working for the rideshare company, and their personal insurance is the only policy that applies to them. They are not in any way associated with the rideshare company during this time.
• Period 1 occurs when the app is on, but the driver has not yet picked up a passenger. During this time, the rideshare company only provides limited insurance coverage – often only after the driver’s personal insurance company denies their claim. Thus, drivers are typically not covered during this time.
• Period 2 occurs once the driver has accepted a passenger request and is on the way to picking up their passenger. At this time, the rideshare company’s insurance policy kicks in, providing drivers with coverage typically up to $1 million.
• Period 3 occurs once the driver has their passenger in the car. During this time, the rideshare company continues to provide drivers with full insurance coverage and uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage.

If there is a dispute between the driver and the third party involved in an accident over whether the driver actually had a passenger during the time of the accident, the value of the insurance claim can change dramatically. For these reasons, such cases require closer examination than other personal injury cases.

Who Pays Depends on Who You Are

It’s not just about whether the driver has Uber or Lyft down at the time of the crash. It also depends on whether you were a passenger, another driver, or a pedestrian involved in the crash.

If you were a passenger in an Uber or Lyft, you’re in the best position in terms of insurance coverage. The rideshare company’s insurance is active because you’re a passenger in the car. Since you were not the driver and did not cause the crash, your focus should be on ensuring that you are compensated for your injuries.

If you were another driver hit by a rideshare vehicle, what you can recover depends heavily on the driver’s app status at the moment of the crash. This is where those coverage periods matter most.

If you were a pedestrian or cyclist struck by a rideshare driver, the same period rules generally apply. Establishing what the driver was doing in the app becomes central to your claim.

Regardless of your role in the accident, the question that you must answer is what the driver’s status was at the time of the crash, and whose policy was active. This is a question that cannot be answered from the typical personal injury evidence at the scene of the crash.

What to Do After a Rideshare Accident

The good news about rideshare accidents is that the steps to take right after the accident are basically the same as those for any other car accident. Your health and safety come first, then the legal issues follow.

Here’s what to do:

• Call 911 for an accident report, even if it seems minor
• Get medical attention even if you don’t have any injuries right away
• Take photos of the accident scene and any injuries
• Get the rideshare driver’s name and insurance information
• Take a screenshot of your rideshare trip details
• Get the names and numbers of any accident witnesses

The screenshot from your rideshare trip is more important than people realize. It will be the record of your trip, and it can be difficult to get that after the fact. Get it while you can.

Why App Data Is Such Important Evidence

The coverage periods cannot be determined from the accident scene. All of this information is contained within the rideshare application data.

Both Uber and Lyft keep detailed records of the trips. These records include the time the driver went online, the time the trip was accepted, the time the passenger was picked up, and the time the passenger was dropped off at the destination.

Furthermore, these companies also maintain GPS tracking records of the car while the driver is traveling. This information can establish which insurance policy applied to the driver at the time of the crash.

Rideshare companies do not readily release this data. It must be requested. The sooner that the request is made, the better. One of the main reasons to hire a rideshare accident lawyer in Ohio is so they can properly request and obtain this data from the rideshare company.

Ohio’s Filing Deadline Still Applies

A rideshare accident results in a personal injury claim, which is governed by the statute of limitations for personal injury claims. In Ohio, with some limited exceptions, the statute of limitations for personal injury claims is two years, as defined in Ohio Revised Code § 2305.10. The two-year limitation period applies to personal injury claims arising from rideshare accidents.

While the statute of limitations is critical to know when filing a personal injury claim resulting from a rideshare accident, it’s also important to understand that waiting until the limit is reached may pose problems for the injured party.

As time passes, it becomes more difficult to obtain evidence from the rideshare app, witnesses to the accident, and the accident itself. In rideshare accident cases, the driver’s status at the time of the accident is crucial to proving the case for the victim, so acting sooner rather than later is advantageous to the victim of the rideshare accident.

How YD Legal Can Help

A rideshare accident involves a lot of moving parts. There are insurance companies to deal with, different insurance policies, and the rideshare company itself that might not be the first to share information with you.

Knowing how to choose a personal injury lawyer can take time, but it will ultimately help you figure out what happened in your accident and get the compensation you deserve. At YD Legal, we will determine which insurance company is responsible and what policies apply.

Meet with our attorneys to learn more about the lawyers who would work on your case. If you’d like to discuss the accident that occurred between you and the rideshare driver, contact YD Legal to schedule a free consultation. There is no pressure or obligation to enter into any agreement during your conversation with one of our lawyers.