Rideshare Accidents Are Rising Nationwide: Who’s Liable When Uber or Lyft Is Involved?

Rideshare accidents are becoming a more visible piece of the national car-crash picture as Uber and Lyft ridership continues to grow. When something goes wrong, figuring out who’s liable is more complicated than a typical two-car crash, because a rideshare driver’s insurance coverage can shift depending on whether they had a passenger, were en route to one, or were simply logged into the app waiting for a fare. Understanding those distinctions matters for anyone hurt in one of these crashes — a passenger, a driver, or someone else on the road.

Why Rideshare Crashes Are Getting More Attention

Ridesharing has grown into a routine part of how people get around, and the data on driver-side crash frequency has grown along with it. A University of Illinois Chicago study published in the Journal of Safety Research surveyed 277 rideshare drivers and found that a third of them reported being in a crash while working. Researchers pointed to a few recurring factors. Drivers often check their phones for new ride requests mid-shift, and because rideshare driving is frequently a second job, fatigue plays a role too. Unfamiliar routes come up often as well.

The companies’ own safety reporting tells a similar story. Lyft’s most recent safety report, covering 2020 through 2022, recorded 111 motor vehicle fatalities across roughly 1.41 billion rides, a 14% increase in the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled compared to its prior reporting period. Lyft has attributed part of that increase to pandemic-era driving behavior nationally, not something unique to its platform. Uber’s most recent public safety report, covering 2017-2018, recorded 97 fatal crashes and 107 fatalities, while noting that 99.9% of trips end without any safety-related incident. Neither company has released a more recent public safety report, so both figures are somewhat dated, but they remain the most recent official baseline either company has published.

How Insurance Coverage Actually Works Mid-Ride

The most common misunderstanding after a rideshare crash is assuming a driver’s personal auto policy will cover the accident the same way it would for an ordinary trip. It usually doesn’t. According to AAA’s rideshare insurance guidance, coverage depends on which of four periods the accident falls into:

• App off: The driver isn’t logged into the rideshare app. Their personal auto policy applies as it would for any other trip.
• App on, waiting for a match: The driver is logged in but hasn’t accepted a ride. Personal policies typically don’t cover this window, so the rideshare company provides limited contingent liability coverage.
• En route to pick up a rider: Once a match is accepted, the rideshare company’s primary coverage applies.
• Passenger in the vehicle: The company’s policy covers the trip until the rider is dropped off.

That gap between “app on, no rider yet” and “match accepted” has historically been the trickiest period for injured parties to sort out. It sits between a driver’s personal coverage and the company’s full commercial coverage, and it’s where a lot of disputes end up.

What Determines Liability

Liability in a rideshare crash isn’t automatically assigned to the rideshare company just because the driver was logged into the app. It comes down to timing: which period the crash fell into, who was at fault, and — this is the part people tend to miss — what coverage was actually active at that moment. A driver who causes a crash while carrying a passenger is typically covered under the rideshare company’s commercial policy. A driver in the same crash while merely waiting for a match may be covered by a smaller, company-provided policy layered on top of (or filling gaps in) their personal insurance. Someone hit by a rideshare driver, whether another motorist, a passenger, or a pedestrian, will often need to pursue a claim against more than one policy depending on the timing.

“Too many accident victims give a recorded statement to an insurance adjuster before they understand the full scope of their injuries,” says Jarrett Blakeley, a Fort Lauderdale car accident lawyer and founder of Blakeley Car Accident & Personal Injury Lawyers. His firm has recovered over $275 million for personal injury clients. “That’s true in any car accident, but it’s especially true in a rideshare case, where there can be more than one insurance policy in play and more than one company deciding how to respond.”

Blakeley, who has been named in the National Trial Lawyers Top 100, notes that the presence of multiple potentially-applicable policies is exactly what makes these claims take longer to resolve than a standard two-car collision.

What to Do After a Rideshare Accident

A few steps apply regardless of which state the crash happens in, and they echo the broader point TCB’s own guide to knowing your rights after an accident makes: what you do in the first hours after an incident tends to shape what happens later.

• Document the ride itself. Screenshot the trip details in the app (driver name, timestamp, route) before they’re harder to retrieve.
• Get medical attention promptly, even for injuries that seem minor at first. Symptoms from soft-tissue injuries in particular can take days to appear.
• Report the crash to the rideshare company through the app’s incident-reporting feature, in addition to any police report.
• Be careful with early statements to insurance adjusters — for either the driver’s personal insurer or the rideshare company’s insurer — before an injury’s full extent is understood.
• Keep records of medical treatment and related expenses, since these often become relevant regardless of which policy ultimately pays.

None of this is a substitute for speaking with an attorney about the specifics of an individual case; state laws and rideshare-specific rules vary, and the details above are general information rather than legal advice for any particular situation.

FAQs

Q: Is a rideshare company automatically responsible if its driver causes a crash?

A: Not automatically. Liability depends on which coverage period the crash falls into and who was at fault. A firm like Blakeley Car Accident & Personal Injury Lawyers can help evaluate which policies apply to a specific incident.

Q: What if I’m a passenger injured in a rideshare accident?

A: Passengers are typically covered by the rideshare company’s commercial policy, since that coverage applies from the time a ride is accepted until drop-off, per the four-period structure above.

Q: What if another driver hits a rideshare vehicle that has a passenger inside?

A: This can involve claims against the at-fault driver’s insurance, the rideshare company’s policy, or both, depending on the facts of the crash.

Q: Does it matter if the rideshare driver was between rides when the crash happened?

A: Yes. This is the “app on, no match yet” period, where personal auto coverage often doesn’t apply and the rideshare company’s coverage is more limited than its in-trip coverage.

Q: How long does a rideshare accident claim typically take?

A: It varies, but claims involving multiple insurance policies generally take longer to resolve than single-policy claims, since each insurer has to evaluate its own coverage period separately.