Victims hurt in traffic accidents involving a rideshare car can seek help in paying their medical bills and covering their time away from work. Maison Law aggressively goes after compensation for our clients from drivers and their employers, such as Uber and Lyft. Please contact us to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation. It’s a no-risk opportunity to find out what your injury may be worth and how to hold a rideshare company fully responsible for recovery costs.
How Do I Know If I Should Turn Over My Rideshare Accident Case to a Lawyer?
If your injuries end up being serious after an accident involving a rideshare car, you should talk over your options with a Fort Bragg Rideshare Accident Lawyer. A serious injury would usually involve something like a broken bone, a serious neck or back injury, or a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). They’ll also involve a much higher price tag for recovery.
When medical costs are high, companies like Uber, their insurers, and their lawyers will fight harder to avoid having to provide full compensation. Lyft may try to shift blame in an accident or work to downplay your injuries so they can offer you less. Your lawyer is your shield against these heartless tactics. Your Maison Law legal representative gathers powerful evidence to force insurance companies to provide the maximum in compensation for you and your family.
A skilled attorney can often win you much more in compensation than you could secure by handling your claim yourself.
Do Uber and Lyft Insure Their Drivers?
Uber and Lyft do provide car insurance for their drivers in certain circumstances, but they also require their drivers to carry their own car insurance.
If you are hurt while riding in an Uber or you are struck by a Lyft car, you would usually be forced to begin the claims process by filing with the driver’s insurer.
But this can quickly prove unhelpful, because normal insurance companies sometimes reject claims when their policyholders were working for a rideshare when it happened. Rideshare drivers will also likely carry the minimum in car accident insurance. The support can cut out before you have paid all your hospital bills.
If you receive nothing from the driver’s insurance or too little to cover all of your recovery, Uber and Lyft both carry million-dollar insurance policies. Unfortunately, victims can only draw from these policies if the driver was in a work phase that’s covered.
These are the work phases and the levels of insurance that apply:
- The Rideshare Driver Has The App Open and Awaits Customers: If an accident occurs while the driver is roaming and hoping for a ride request, Uber and Lyft would offer coverage up to $100,000 to support victims.
- The Rideshare Driver Has a Passenger or Is on the Way to Pick up a Customer: In these two situations, if an accident happens, passengers and victims outside the car can draw from the $1,000,000 coverage. This support is there for pedestrians or cyclists who might be struck by a Lyft driver. It might be applied to someone hurt while in the backseat of an Uber SUV.
- Another Driver’s Car Insurance: If you are riding in an Uber car and another vehicle strikes the rideshare vehicle, then the at-fault driver’s car insurance should cover your injuries.
- Your Car Insurance: If nothing else works, you can file a claim against your own insurance provider, drawing from your uninsured/underinsured motorist protection.
Uber Accident Dangers in Fort Bragg
Fort Bragg CA is already a busy place for traffic, especially during tourist season. Highway 1 and Willits Road start to build, and any extra traffic only increases the chances of a collision.
The addition of Uber and Lyft cars only adds to the problem and risk. More vehicles and the addition of drivers who may be distracted by their jobs are the issues.
We can all get distracted at the wheel and become careless, but rideshare drivers are on the clock as they speed down the highway and through neighborhoods.
These are just a few of the workplace dangers that come with being alongside a rideshare car:
Focus on a Ride Notification: Drivers will be anxiously awaiting a ride request notification alert. It’s an audio alert that sends them to their phones to see if the rider is in a convenient place. They must decide if they’ll accept the request or not. If they don’t want it, another rideshare driver will. It’s a lot of focus that takes away from safe driving.
Finding the Rider: Lyft employees also rely on GPS to help find passengers and their destinations. They sometimes must trust their phone’s navigation in areas of Mendocino County they aren’t familiar with. Drivers make mistakes, and GPS can also mess up. The distractions and confusion can lead to major collisions.
Distracting Passengers: A passenger might change their pick-up location or message a driver. Riders might also start arguments with drivers or get chatty, leading to that driver’s attention being pulled from the road.
Working for More Than One Rideshare – Drivers can also work for Uber and Lyft, virtually doubling the potential distractions. They switch back and forth between apps, losing attention on the road and causing more opportunities for mistakes in the lane.
Reckless Driving – Uber drivers might be tempted to speed or drive aggressively to get to a passenger quicker or a location sooner. It’s a dangerous way to get a better rating from a driver.
Driver’s State of Mind – There’s no guarantee that a driver is up for a day of driving, either. Like any of us, they may not have slept well the night before. They may be drowsy at the wheel or unfocused due to a personal issue. Rideshare drivers can also choose to travel while under the influence of a drug or after drinking alcohol, creating a very dangerous situation for passengers and other motorists.
Proving what exactly led to a crash might be challenging, especially when Uber’s lawyers are trying to help their employer escape blame. Maison Law of Fort Bragg fully examines the details in the case and presents the facts back with evidence. Then we hold the rideshare company fully accountable.
What Should an Uber Accident Injury Settlement Be Worth?
Arriving at an accurate estimate of what you may take home will be hard when we don’t know the details of what happened to you. Every case and injury is very different. Our lawyers would need to investigate the accident, your medical prognosis, and the level of fault for the rideshare driver.
The time it takes you to heal from an injury (everyone heals at their own pace) and how long you must miss shifts at work will play a role in how high your settlement level could go. Lyft has an insurance policy with high limits, and every bit of that money should be available to victims until they are fully recovered.
These and other damages all factor into how big a rideshare accident settlement check or court judgment will be:
- Medical expenses and physical therapy costs
- Lifelong support for victims suffering a permanent physical disability
- Support for pain endured
- Support for the emotional trauma experienced in an accident and during recovery
- Support for a loss of enjoyment of life due to an injury
- Lost income and benefits
- Repair or replacement costs for your vehicle
- Wrongful death benefits for the family left behind after a fatal accident involving a Lyft or Uber car
Contact an Uber Accident Attorney Today
We offer a free and confidential case review to all Fort Bragg and Mendocino County rideshare accident victims. Please contact us today to schedule an appointment. It’s a no-risk way to determine what your case is worth and how to hold Uber or Lyft fully liable.
And if you do need Maison Law’s help to secure more in support, you don’t need to worry about having the money to hire a lawyer. We don’t get paid unless we win your case for you. Then our fee comes out of the settlement check that a rideshare corporation must provide.
