Grabbing a ride through a rideshare app can be a great way to save money. Especially if you don’t need to travel in motor vehicles frequently, hiring someone else to drive you across town a few times a month could be much more cost-effective than taking on car payments, insurance cost and gas expenses, to say nothing of maintenance and repairs.
Millions of others agree with you, as the number of annual trips involving rideshare vehicles has sharply increased since the introduction of this revolutionary new system. There is a downside to traveling in rideshare vehicles, and that is your lack of control over what happens.
If you get into a crash while in an Uber or Lyft vehicle, who pays for your losses?
Standard Texas liability rules typically still apply
Generally, the party responsible for covering losses after a crash is the party that caused the wreck. That rule will hold true in rideshare collisions. If another vehicle runs a red light or slams into the vehicle you hired, then the driver who caused the wreck will typically be the one whose insurance pays for your losses.
Texas law requires that everyone carry at least $30,000 in bodily injury liability protection and also $25,000 worth of property damage coverage. If the driver of the rideshare vehicle also got hurt, you may have to share $60,000 with them and anyone else hurt. However, if the driver of the rideshare vehicle caused the crash, then their coverage is what applies.
Does the driver or the company provide the coverage?
The major determining factor about whether you can make a claim against the rideshare driver’s personal insurance or the rideshare company’s corporate policy is whether or not the driver properly noted in the app that they had picked you up for a ride.
As long as they had entered that information, the company policy should cover you. If they had not initiated the ride at the time of the crash, you may need to make a claim against their insurance.
Knowing your rights if you get into a rideshare vehicle crash can help you minimize your personal losses.