Your Options For Getting Compensation From A Rideshare Collision Case
After a car accident, one should be focused on gathering evidence as well as seeking immediate medical treatment for any present injuries as well as seeking examination for any as-of-yet unrevealed injuries. It’s your medical records that will ultimately make the largest contribution in deciding your future compensation for your experience of the accident as well as it’s aftermath. Things like being in an accident within a Lyft or Uber vehicle can drastically change how your personal injury car accident case is handled by a car accident lawyer.
Recently, a teen was involved in a rideshare crash. It was a typical day and he had just finished tennis practice, ordering a Lyft ride to get home. At some point a collision with three cars occurred and the teen blacked out, waking up shortly after it happened. Where the teen won’t remember many details of the accident due to being blacked out, the app will remember many things provided it was on. It’s this element that decides the kind of compensation you can receive within a rideshare accident.
In a case where a rideshare driver causes an accident, you may be able to pursue compensation from the driver’s personal insurance policy, the policy of the rideshare or a combination of the two, but ultimately, whether or not the rideshare’s insurance can be involved depends on what the driver was doing during the crash.
If the driver’s rideshare app is on and waiting for a ride request: Rideshares like Lyft specifically provides insurance via 3rd party liability coverage to its drivers if the driver’s own insurance does not apply. The policy limits for this coverage is $50,000 for bodily injury, up to $100,000 per accident, and $25,000 for property damage per accident. But this is only applicable if the app is on and the driver is waiting for a request.
If the driver’s rideshare app is on and providing a ride: If the driver is providing a you ride while their app is on, the coverage increases. Lyft specifically provides $1,000,000 in 3rd party liability coverage.
If the app is off: During an accident, if the app is off (say that you’re a friend of a Lyft rider and you just so happen to be in the car they work in while they’re off-duty), then normally a rideshare is not obligated to provide it’s 3rd party coverage to its drivers or victims within its driver’s vehicle because the accident didn’t technically occur on the “company’s time.” Victims of an accident will need to make a claim on the driver’s personal auto insurance policy.
If you have been involved in a rideshare accident, contact a car accident lawyer today at the Eric Roy Law Firm.