What do you do if you are injured in an Uber or Lyft vehicle?
Uber considers its employees independent contractors, a classification the company has used to avoid liability in lawsuits before. You may recall an accident in 2014, where a six-year-old child was hit by and Uber driver and killed in San Francisco. Because the driver was an independent contractor, so it went, the company was not liable.
Uber drivers are expected to maintain their own private insurance. However, if you are injured during the course of your trip and your driver is at fault, you are covered under a $1 million liability policy that Uber and Lyft have.
If you are not a passenger or the driver is off duty, it’s a little more complicated. In those situations, you will likely have to make your claim on the driver’s personal insurance policy. If the driver is on duty and does not have a passenger, you will still be required to make your claim on the driver’s policy, not Uber’s $1 million dollar policy.
If you are injured in a crash while an Uber passenger, here’s what you need to do:
- Call 911 immediately. While you wait for emergency services, if possible without causing yourself more injury, begin to document the accident scene.
- Call for any witnesses you see and write down their names, email addresses and phone numbers
- Write down the name of the driver or screenshot their name in the Uber app
- Screenshot your Uber receipt and the photograph the scene
Once you have been treated, your first call should be to a personal injury attorney. The accident likely led to damages such as your pain and suffering, medical bills, lost wages or capacity for work and more. The best way to seek those damages from a negligent driver is to enlist the help of an attorney
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