Rideshare Coverage Depends On What The App Was Doing
Unlike an ordinary car accident, an Uber or Lyft crash involves a layered insurance question that depends entirely on what the driver’s app was doing at the exact moment of the collision. An Indianapolis uber accident lawyer sees Indiana law and the rideshare companies’ own policies divide this into three distinct phases, and knowing which phase applies often determines how much coverage is actually available to someone hurt in the crash.
Phase One Applies When The App Is Off
If a rideshare driver has not logged into the app at all, the situation is treated like any other car accident, and the driver’s own personal auto insurance policy generally provides whatever coverage applies. Uber and Lyft carry no responsibility for a crash that happens before a driver has even opened the app for the day, regardless of how the driver otherwise earns income through the platform during other hours.
Phase Two Covers The Waiting Period
Once a driver logs into the app and is waiting for a ride request, Indiana law requires transportation network companies to provide contingent liability coverage, a lower tier than what applies once a ride is actually accepted.
- Fifty thousand dollars per person for bodily injury or death
- One hundred thousand dollars per accident for bodily injury total
- Property damage coverage required under the same contingent policy
Phase Three Provides The Highest Coverage
Once a driver accepts a ride request, whether en route to the pickup or actively transporting a passenger, the rideshare company’s much larger policy becomes primary. This phase generally provides one million dollars in liability coverage along with uninsured and underinsured motorist protection, which is significantly higher than what applies during the waiting period and reflects the added risk of actively carrying a paying passenger on the road.
This Distinction Matters A Great Deal
The gap between phase two and phase three coverage is enormous, and insurance companies on both sides sometimes dispute exactly when a crash occurred relative to these phases. Pulling the driver’s trip data and app logs early in a case usually settles the phase question more reliably than anyone’s memory of the moment, and that data can be lost or overwritten if not requested quickly.
A Driver’s Personal Policy Rarely Applies During A Trip
Most personal auto policies specifically exclude coverage for commercial activity, which includes driving for a rideshare app, meaning a driver’s own insurer can deny a claim entirely once it learns the app was active and a fare was involved. This exclusion catches many drivers off guard and is exactly why the rideshare company’s own layered coverage system exists in the first place, to fill the gap most personal policies leave open.
Passengers, Pedestrians, And Other Drivers Have Rights Too
Anyone injured by a rideshare vehicle, not just the passenger inside it, can potentially pursue a claim under whichever phase of coverage applied when the crash happened. A pedestrian struck by a driver actively transporting a passenger, for example, can generally access the higher phase three coverage the same way a passenger in the vehicle would, since the coverage protects anyone injured by the vehicle during that phase.
Getting Help Sorting Out Which Policy Applies
Ward & Ward Personal Injury Lawyers can review the trip records and app data to determine which phase of coverage actually applies to your accident, rather than accepting an insurer’s initial characterization at face value. Insurers frequently argue for the lower coverage tier first, hoping an injured person accepts that characterization without pushing back or requesting the underlying data.
Talk Through Your Accident With Someone Who Knows This System
An Indianapolis uber accident lawyer can walk through the specific facts of your crash before responding to any insurance adjuster. Reach out so we can look into what happened and figure out where your claim actually stands, including which phase of coverage applies and how much may realistically be available once that question is settled.
