Ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft are becoming more popular.
According to Inc:
“Fifteen percent of adults in the United States have used a ridesharing app and of those, 17% use one on a daily or weekly basis. Young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 are the most likely demographic to use a ridesharing app.”
However, the more popular something becomes, more problems can arise. Ridesharing accidents have become more frequent. Between 2014 and 2016, ridesharing vehicle crashes tripled.
So this raises a couple of important legal questions like:
- Who’s responsible in the event of a car accident?
- Who’s insurance pays for injuries?
Legal Considerations for Drivers
If you drive for a ride sharing service, then you should have your own insurance as well as what’s included in your ride sharing contract. If you’re involved in an accident and your passenger is injured, they may experience difficulty in collecting damages for their injuries.
Ridesharing insurance can help bridge the gap, but currently only 23% of ridesharing drivers have purchased this type of insurance. And unfortunately, the more people use ridesharing services, the more frequent accidents will become.
Legal Considerations for Riders
It’s important to ask questions before you decide which ridesharing service to use. For example, Uber and UberX drivers don’t have to have commercial insurance of any kind. So if there’s an accident, an insurance company could deny payment.
If you’re a passenger and an accident occurs, you must collect valuable information such as the driver’s name, who they work for, their insurance information, and all of their contact information.
Laws are constantly changing regarding ridesharing insurance so check with the state in which you were involved in the accident in order to see how to proceed.
It may be in your best interest to hire an experienced car accident attorney to help you figure out how to proceed in this complex situation.