Uber and Lyft accident claims
Rideshare claims turn on a question that sounds administrative and is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds of difference: what was the driver's app doing at the instant of the collision.
The three periods
California regulates rideshare companies as transportation network companies and requires defined insurance at each stage of a driver's shift. The coverage available is radically different in each.
| App status | Who covers it | Roughly how much |
|---|---|---|
| Offline. App closed, driving for themselves | The driver's personal auto policy only | Whatever they bought — often the 30/60/15 minimum |
| Period 1. App on, waiting for a request | Contingent cover from the rideshare company, above any personal policy | At least $50,000 per person / $100,000 per incident / $30,000 property |
| Period 2. Request accepted, driving to collect the passenger | The rideshare company's commercial policy | $1 million of third-party liability |
| Period 3. Passenger in the vehicle | The rideshare company's commercial policy | $1 million of third-party liability, plus uninsured/underinsured motorist cover |
The difference between Period 1 and Period 2 can be a factor of ten or twenty in available coverage, and it is decided by a timestamp held by the rideshare company. That is a strong reason the app data gets requested early and in writing.
If you were the passenger
This is the simplest position to be in and the one people most often mishandle. As a passenger you are essentially never at fault, and the $1 million commercial policy is in play regardless of whether your driver or the other driver caused the crash.
You do not have to work out who was to blame before making a claim. You do need to report it through the app — which creates the record — and to get checked medically even if you feel able to walk away.
If a rideshare driver hit you
You may have no idea they were working. Signs: a phone mounted on the windshield, a trade dress sticker, a passenger in the back who is not family, or the driver saying they are on a trip.
Get the driver's name and the company. The claim is then made against the rideshare company's insurer directly, and the app records establish the period. Do not accept the personal insurer's position that the driver was off-app without seeing the data.
Questions people ask
I was a passenger in an Uber that crashed. Who do I claim against?
Start with the rideshare company's commercial policy, which carries $1 million of liability cover while a passenger is in the vehicle. It responds whether your driver or another driver was at fault. You do not need to resolve fault before reporting the claim.
The driver says their app was off. How would anyone know?
The rideshare company holds the trip data and knows precisely. The driver's recollection is not the evidence; the timestamped record is. If coverage is disputed on that basis, the data gets requested formally.
Does the $1 million policy mean my case is worth a million?
No. A policy limit is a ceiling, not a valuation. It means the claim will not be squeezed into a $30,000 minimum policy — which matters enormously in a serious injury and not at all in a minor one.
Can I claim if I was the rideshare driver?
Yes, against whoever caused the crash, and potentially through the uninsured/underinsured cover carried during periods 2 and 3 if the at-fault driver is uninsured or underinsured. You may also have your own commercial or rideshare endorsement.
Related
Reviewed October 2026 by Simon Aziz Budhwani, Esq., the attorney responsible for this site. Legal statements here name the California code section they rely on, so you can check them rather than trust them. This is information about the law in general, not advice about your situation.
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